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BANQVET
Celebrating The
One hundred and fourth Anniversary
of the birth of
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
by the ^
Lincoln Centennial Association
IFednesday^ February the twelfth
nineteen hundred and thirteen
The Illinots State Armoury
Springfield
*
Invocation The Reverend William Schulzke
IntroduBion The Honourable J Otis Humphrey
Lincoln as Germany Regarded Him
Baron Von Bernstorff
The German Ambassador
If Lincoln Lived in This Day
The Honourable Joseph W. Bailey
of Texas
MENV
\
Cotuits
Salted Ahmnds
Green Sea Turtle
Celery Olives
Fresh Lobster Newhurg
Martini
Cocktail
Chateau
La Tour
Blanche
Tenderloin of Beef Fresh Mushrooms
Potatoes Parisienne PofHtnafd
Punch
Breast of Squab Guinea Au Cresson
Potato Chips
Heart of Lettuce Roquefort Dressing
Ice Cream Cake
Pommery
Sec
Cheese
Crackers
Apollinaris
Coffee
Curacoa
Cognac
Cigarettes
Cigars
THt LINCOLN BirtOCfIT CW.
^PRINCrtCLO, ILL.
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Digitized by tine Internet Arcliive
\n 2010 with funding from
Tlie Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant
http://www.archive.org/details/lincolnmast2195roth
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730
m)t Ifncoln Centennial a^isoriatfon
OBJECT
Properly to observe tlie one hundredth anniversary of
the birth of Abraham Lincoln ; to preserve to posterity
the memory of his words and works, and to stimulate the
patriotism of the youth of the land by appropriate annual
exercises.
u
THE LINCOLN CENTENNIAL ASSOCIATION
FORMER GUESTS OF HONOR.
The Honorable Wm. H. Taft, President of the U. S.
The Right Honorable James Bryce, The British Ambassador.
The Honorable J. J. Jusserand, The French Ambassador.
*The Honorable Jonathan P. Dolliver of Iowa.
The Honorable William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska.
The Honorable Robert T. Lincoln of Illinois.
The Honorable N. C. Blanchard of Louisiana.
The Honorable Fred T. Dubois of Idaho.
The Honorable Charles S. Deneen of Illinois.
The Honorable Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts.
*The Honorable John W. Noble of Missouri.
The Honorable Martin W. Littleton of New York.
The Honorable Frank B. Willis of Ohio.
The Honorable Richard Yates of Illinois.
The Honorable Peter S. Grosscup of Illinois.
The Honorable William H. Seaman of Wisconsin.
The Honorable Albert B. Anderson of Indiana.
*The Honorable Alfred OrendorfE of Illinois.
The Honorable James S. Harlan of Washington, D. C.
The Honorable William A. Rodenburg of Illinois.
The Honorable John P. Hand of Illinois.
Dr. Booker T. Washington of Alabama.
*The Honorable Howland J. Hamlin of Illinois^,
The Honorable William H. Stead of Illinois.
The Honorable Francis G. Blair of Illinois.
* Deceased.
HI
INCORPORATORS.
*Hon. Melville W. Fuller, Chief Justice U. S. Supreme Court.
Hon. Shelby M. Cullom, United States Senator.
Hon. Albert J. Hopkins.
Hon. Joseph G. Cannon, Member of Congress.
Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson.
Hon. Charles S. Deneen, Governor of Illinois.
Hon. John P. Hand, Justice Supreme Court, Illinois.
Hon. J. Otis Humphrey, Judge U. S. District Court.
*Hon. James A. Rose, Secretary of State.
Hon. Ben. F. Caldwell.
Hon. Richard Yates.
Melville E. Stone, Esq., New York.
Horace White, Esq., New York.
John W. Bunn, Esq.
Dr. William Jayne.
OFFICERS.
President J. Otis Humphrey
Vice President John W. Bunn
Secretary Philip B. Warren
Treasurer J. H. Holbrook
DIRECTORS.
Shelby M. Cullom J. Otis Humphrey
John W. Bunn Charles S. Deneen
* James A. Rose
* Deceased.
IV
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
John W. Bunn. Thomas Rees.
Victor Bender. George Reisch.
Clinton L. Conkling. *James A. Rose.
Shelby M. Cullom. Nicholas Roberts.
Charles S. Deneen. Edgar S. Scott.
E. A. Hall. George B. Stadden.
Logan Hay. Louis C. Taylor.
J. Otis Humphrey. Jas. R. B. VanCleave.
William Jayne. Philip B. Warren.
William B. Jess. Howard K. Weber.
Edward D. Keys. Bluford Wilson.
George Pasfield, Jr. W. F. Workman.
Edward W. Payne. Loren E. Wheeler.
MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE.
Nicholas Roberts. Verne Ray.
James A. Easley. Latham T. Souther.
Arthur D. Mackie.
PUBLICITY COMiVHTTEE.
*James A. Rose. Henry M. Merriam.
Jas. R. B. VanCleave. Thomas Rees.
BANQUET COMMITTEE.
George B. Stadden. John McCreery.
Philip Barton Warren. Walter McClellan Allen.
MUSIC COMMITTEE.
Robert C. Brown. Albert Guest.
Clark B. Shipp.
SPEAKER'S COMMITTEE.
Shelby M. Cullom. Charles S. Deneen.
J. Otis Humphrey.
SOUVENIR AND PRINTING COMMITTEE.
Jas. R. B. VanCleave. Archibald L. Bowen.
Harrison C. Blankmeyer.
CEREMONIES COMMITTEE.
♦James A. Rose. Francis G. Blair.
J. H. Collins.
DECORATION COMMITTEE.
Henry Abels. H. D. Swirles.
George B. Helmle. Frank S. Dickson.
* Deceased.
LIFE MEMBERS.
ARKANSAS.
LUXORA.
S. E. Simonson.
CALIFORNIA.
San Francisco.
Geo. N. Armsby.
CANADA.
Toronto.
Horace S. Reardon.
COLORADO.
Colorado Springs.
Jos. W. Norvell.
Pueblo.
Wm. Sheehan.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
Washington.
Shelby M. CuUom.
♦Melville W. Fuller.
George C Rankin.
Wm. Barrett Ridgely.
INDIANA.
WiNIMAC.
Moses A. Dilts.
IOWA.
OSKALOOSA.
J. F. McNiel.
MASSACHUSETTS.
Amherst.
E. F. Leonard.
MICHIGAN.
Albion.
C. A. Fiske.
Detroit.
Arthur D. Mackie.
Battle Creek.
Charles W. Post.
* Deceased.
MINNESOTA.
St. Paul.
Asa G. Briggs.
MISSOURI.
St. Louis.
Wells H. Blodgett.
W. L. Desnoyers.
V. E. Desnoyers.
David R. Francis.
James C. Jones.
Warrick M. Hough.
B. C. Winston.
NEW JERSEY.
AsBUKT Park.
John W. Aymar.
NEW YORK.
New York City.
Bird S. Coler.
*W. N. Coler.
Melville E. Stone.
Horace White.
OHIO.
Toledo.
C. S. Morse.
OKLAHOMA.
McAlester.
B. R. Stephens.
ViNITA.
Joseph A. Gill.
PENNSYLVANIA.
Clearfield.
Warren E. Partridge.
Philadelphia.
*William H. Lambert.
VI
VIRGINIA.
Norfolk.
Wm. G. Burns.
WISCONSIN.
Milwaukee.
John E. Burton.
H. F. Whitcomb.
ILLINOIS.
Alton.
J. A. Cousley.
Anna.
H. H. Kohn.
Ashland.
Edwin C. Beggs.
F. C. Wallbaum.
Auburn.
W. W. Lowry.
Aurora.
Ira C. Copley.
Albert J. Hopkins.
Henry C Pyle.
Belleville.
Wm. U. Halbert.
Bethany.
John A. Freeland.
A. R. Scott.
Bloomington.
J. H. Cheney.
LaFayette Funk.
Frank Gillespie.
Thos. C. Kerrick.
John T. Lillard.
Adlai E. Stevenson.
Buffalo.
Henry C. Garvey.
Oliver McDaniel.
Buffalo Hart.
John S. Hurt.
Cairo.
F. A. DeRosset.
Geo. Parsons.
Cambridge.
John P. Hand.
Canton.
U. G. Orendorff.
Wm. H. Parlin.
Cantrall.
Chas. P. Power.
Carbondale.
E. E. Mitchell.
George W. Smith.
Carlinville.
William H. Behrens.
Frank L. Burton.
John I. Rinaker.
Robert B. Shirley.
Carthage.
James F. Gibson.
Champaign.
J. C. Carl.
Joseph's C. Dodds.
Charleston.
Frank K. Dunn.
Chatham.
Ben. F. Caldwell.
Chicago.
Jacob M. Appel.
J. Ogden Armour.
A. C. Bartlett.
Wm. G. Beale.
W. L. Brown.
Patrick J. Cahill.
William T. Church.
Alex Chystraus.
C. E. Crafts.
F. P. Daniels.
Richmond Dean.
Richard Dean.
vu
Charles S. Deneen.
*Theodore Finn.
Peter S. Grosscup.
Ernest A. Hamill.
Isaac Miller Hamilton.
*J. T. Harahan.
Geo. B. Harris.
Jesse Holdom.
L. S. Hungerford.
Albert M. Johnson.
Frank H. Jones.
Nicholas E.. Jones.
S. O. Knudson.
Chas. R. E. Koch.
Joseph Leiter.
Robt. T. Lincoln.
H. A. Mathews.
Willard M. McEwen.
Willis Melville.
*Wm. H. Mitchell.
Edward Morris.
Edward H. Morris.
Frank W. Morse.
Verne Ray.
James H. Roberts.
Nicholas Roberts.
*W. C. Seipp.
Emil G. Schmidt.
Frank L. Shepard.
WiUiam T. Smith.
Byron L. Smith.
Orson Smith.
A. A. Sprague.
S. W. Strauss.
Charles S. Sweet.
Charles S. Sweet, Jr.
W. H. Swett.
John D. Warfield.
George W. Webster.
Elijah N. Zoline.
Dajstville.
Joseph G. Cannon.
Walter J. Grant.
* Deceased.
Wm. R. Jewell.
Frank Lindley.
John L. Watts.
Decatur.
Everett J. Brown.
Hugh Crea.
O. B. Gorin.
Milton Johnson.
E. S. McDonald.
Joseph J. Sheehan.
Dekalb.
A. J. Kennedy.
DiVERNON.
*Charles G. Brown.
Dixon.
*S. H. Bethea.
DONAVAN,
John Nelson.
DWIGHT.
Frank L. Smith.
East St. Louis.
J. B. Maguire.
Wm. E. Trautman.
Edwardsville.
B. B. Clawson.
Elgin.
Sydney D. Wilgus.
Elkhart.
John D. G. Oglesby.
EvANSTON.
J. Seymour Currey.
Farmersville.
John Ball.
Galesburg.
W. E. Terry.
Granite City.
R. E. Neidringhaus.
vm
Hamilton.
Edmund P. Denton.
Harrisbxjrg.
Harry Taylor.
I. R. Tuttle.
Jacksonville.
A. L. Adams.
H. B. Carriel.
Thos. B. Orear.
Andrew Russel.
Miller Weir.
Thomas Worthington.
JOLIET.
W. W. Smith.
Kankakee.
Frank P. Norbury."
Len Small
Lanesville.
J. p. Kent.
H. C. Whittemore.
La Salle.
F. W. Matthiessen.
Lincoln.
J. A. Lucas.
Litchfield.
J. Carl Dodds.
Madison.
F. A. Garesehe.
Mattoon.
Jas. W. Craig.
Mechantcsburg.
W. S. Bullard.
Moline.
J. B. Oakleaf.
Morrison.
F. E. Ramsey.
Mt. Sterling.
J. F. Regan.
Mt. Vernon.
W. C. Arthurs.
New Berlin.
B. W. Brown.
J. Brown Hitt.
Newman.
Scott Burgett.
W. M. Young.
Normal.
David Felmley.
R. N. McCauley.
Oregon.
Frank O. Lowden.
Ottawa.
M. T. Moloney.
Pana.
A. H. McTaggert.
Paris.
Charles P. Hitch.
Pawnee.
Edward A. Baxter.
Frank Morrell.
Thos. A. Shepherd.
Paxton.
Charles Bogardus.
Pearl City.
Charles Musser.
Peoria.
Edward U. Henry.
Robert H. Lovett.
H. W. Lynch.
W. G. McRoberts.
I. C. Pinkney.
P. G. Rennick.
Frederick H. Smith.
Joseph A. Weil.
IX
PiTTSFIELD.
Harry Higbee.
PONTIAC.
J. M. Lyon.
Prentice.
J. H. Hubbs.
QUINCY.
J. O. Anderson.
* Edward J. Parker.
W. S. Warfield.
Fred Wilms.
Richland.
Tavner Anderson.
RiVEKTON.
Jobn Deal.
Robinson.
A. H. Jones.
Rochester.
Ira F. Twist.
ROCKFORD.
Wm. W. Bennett.
Robert Rew.
Rock Island.
Joseph DeSilvia.
RUSHVILLE.
John S. Little.
Sharpsburg.
O. S. Nash.
Shelbyville.
J. W. Yantis.
Streator.
0. B. Ryon.
W. H. Boys.
Taylorville.
John E. Hogan.
Ernest Hoover.
Urbana.
Edmund J. James.
Vandalia.
Jno. J. Brown.
W. M. Farmer.
ViRDEN.
S. H. Humphrey.
Joseph N. Ross.
J. H. Shriver.
H. C Simons.
Howard T. Wilson.
Virginia.
*RIchard W. Mills.
Williamsburg.
J. F. Prather.
John W. Prather.
WiLMETTE.
W. T. Smith.
Winchester.
A. P. Grout.
Springfield.
Henry Abels.
Alfred Adams.
O. G. Addleman.
Walter McC Allen.
A. A. Anderson.
*Jas. H. Anderson.
Oscar Ansell.
W. P. Armstrong.
O. B. Babcock.
L. L. Bacchus.
Raymond V. Bahr.
Richard Ball.
John A. Barber.
H. E. Barker.
* Deceased.
S. A. Barker.
James H. Barkley.
A. J. Barnes.
Edgar S. Barnes.
W. B. Barry.
Geo. A. Bates.
Chas. T. Bauman.
R. J. Beck.
H. S. Beckemeyer.
Geo. H. Becker.
Victor E. Bender.
Robert L. Berry.
Chas. T. Bisch.
Harold P. Bisch.
John W. Black.
Ira B. Blackstock.
Francis G. Blair.
Harrison C. Blankmeyer.
Frank H. Bode.
Alfred Booth.
C. M. Bowcock.
Archibald L. Bowen.
W. L. Bowlus.
T. M. Bradford.
Wm. A. Bradford.
Jas. L. Brainerd.
Charles Bressmer.
John Bressmer.
John E. Bretz.
John F. Bretz.
Geo. M. Brinkerhoff, Sr.
Geo. M. Brinkerhoff, Jr.
John H. Brinkerhoff.
Stuart Broadwell.
A. Campbell Brown.
C E. Brown.
Milton Hay Brown.
Owsley Brown.
Robert C Brown.
Stuart Brown.
W. H. Bruce.
Fred Buck.
E. H. Buckley.
Samuel A. BuUard.
^Deceased.
Wm. A. M. Bunker.
Geo. W. Bunn.
Henry Bunn.
Jacob Bunn.
John W. Bunn.
Joseph F. Bunn.
Willard Bunn.
Edmund Burke.
Saml. T. Burnett.
William J. Butler.
J. F. Cadwallader.
E. E. Cantrall.
C. C. Carroll.
* Noah M. Cass.
Stanley Castle.
E. L. Chapin.
Geo. W. Chatterton, Sr.
Henry L. Child.
Robt. A. Clarkson.
George E. Coe.
Louis J. Coe.
♦Harry E. Coe.
E. R. Coggswell.
Nathan Cole.
L. H. Coleman.
Logan Coleman.
Louis G. Coleman.
J. H. CoUins.
Clinton L. Conkling.
Wm. H. Conkling.
J. Fleetwood Connelly.
James A. Connolly.
Robert Connolly.
A. E, Converse.
A. L. Converse.
Henry A. Converse.
Wm. O. Converse.
Thomas Condell.
T. J. Condon.
W. H. Conway.
Jas. L. Cook.
John C. Cook.
James A. Creighton.
*A. N. J. Crook.
ti
Shelby M. CuUom.
L. A. Danner.
Gaylord Davidson.
Henry Davis.
J. McCan Davis.
Geo. Edward Day.
Don Deal.
T. E. Dempcy.
Charles S. Deneen.
D. A. DeVares.
Frank S. Dickson.
Isaac R. Diller.
J. W. Diller.
Henry A. Dirksen.
Fred C. Dodds.
R. N. Dodds.
Thos. M. Dolan.
Harry F. Dorwin.
Shelby C. Dorwin.
James E. Dowling.
B. F. Drennan.
Lincoln Dubois.
Geo. C. Dunlop.
E. J. Dunn.
James A. Easley.
R. H. Easley.
A. W. Edward.
Albert S. Edwards.
Richard Egan.
Anton Elshoff.
Emory Ennis.
James Fairlie.
Joseph Farris.
D. Frank Fawcett.
Clarence W. Feaster.
J. H. Feltham.
Thomas F. Ferns.
William Fetzer.
Joel C. Fitch.
Frank R. Fisher.
Arthur M. Fitzgerald.
Ed. J. Flinn.
J. G. Fogarty.
John L. Fortado.
* Deceased.
John J. Foster.
Carl D. Franke.
John B. Franz.
C. A. Frazee.
D. C. Frederick.
James Furlong.
M. B. Garber.
G. J. George.
Cornelius J. Giblin.
George B. Gillespie.
Frank Godley.
Hugh J. Graham.
James M. Graham.
John H. Green.
J. L. Greene.
R. A. Guest.
Rudolph Haas.
A. Lee Hagler.
Elmer E. Hagler.
Nathan Halderman.
E. A. HaU.
James A. Hall.
Wathen Hamilton.
C. F. Handshy.
Saml. J. Hanes.
Wm. B. Hankins.
*Edw. F. Hartman.
Frank L. Hatch.
Pascal E. Hatch.
Robt. E. Hatcher.
Charles E. Hay.
Logan Hay.
E. F. Hazell.
Ernest H. Helmle.
George B. Helmle.
J. C. Helper.
G. B. Hemenway.
J. E. Hemmick.
A. L. Hereford.
*R. F. Herndon.
Timothy Hickey.
George C Hickox.
Howard T. Hicks.
B. R. Hieronymus.
xu
Adelbert P. Higley.
Alonzo Hoflf.
J. H. Holbrook.
W. J. Horn.
W. M. Howard.
James L. Hudson.
Ridgely Hudson.
Arthur F. Hughes.
J. Otis Humphrey.
Otis S. Humphrey.
R. G. Hunn.
Charles H. Hurst.
Harry L. Ide.
Roy Ide.
Edwin F. Irwin.
Horace C. Irwin.
W. M. Jageman.
A. C. James.
Frank R. Jamison.
William Jayne.
James W. Jefferson.
Roy T. Jefferson.
Wm. B. Jess.
Edward S. Johnson.
James A. Jones.
James T. Jones.
M. A. Jones.
Strother T. Jones.
Charles P. Kane.
Alvin S. Keys.
Edward D. Keys.
Edward L. Keys.
George E, Keys.
John M. Kimble.
Richard F. Kinsella.
Ben M. Kirlin.
Carl Klaholt.
Benjamin Knudson.
Geo. N. Kreider.
Frank T. Kuhl.
B. A. Lange.
Geo. C. Latham.
Henry C. Latham.
F. M. Legg.
* Deceased
Jerome A. Leland.
Warren E. Lewis.
Harry B. Lewis.
Gersham J. Little.
G. L. Lloyd.
John H. Llovd.
T. D. Logan.
E. F. Lomelino.
Fred W. Long.
Harry T. Loper.
*J. H. Lord.
*John S. Lord.
Henry B. Lubbe.
T. P. Luby.
John Lutz.
Thos. E. Lyon.
Alex. B. Macpherson.
J. F. Macpherson.
Charles J. Maldaner.
James M. Margrave.
William Marlowe.
John D. Marney.
H. W. Masters.
Robert Matheny.
James H. Matheny.
Rodman C. O. Matheny.
A. F. Maurer.
O. F. Maxon.
R. H. McAnulty.
Plato McCourtney.
John McCreery.
James S. McCuUough.
Frank M. McGowan.
Harry O. McGrue.
J. F. McLennan.
Henry B. McVeigh.
John E, Melick.
H. M. Merriam.
J. F. Miller.
L. S. Miller.
Charles F. Mills.
Lewis H. Miner.
W. H. Minton.
John P. Mockler.
zui
C. F. Mortimer.
S. E. Munson.
P. F. Murphy.
C. R. Murray.
Geo. W. Murray.
Thos. J. Murray.
Albert Myers.
Louis H. Myers.
W. H. Nelms.
Harry W. Nickey.
W. A. Northcott.
P. J. O'Reilly.
* Alfred Orendorff.
James R. Orr.
W. A. Orr.
E. W. Osborne.
James H. Paddock.
H. C. Page.
Geo. Thomas Palmer.
A. J. Parons.
George Pasfield, Sr.
George Pasfield, Jr.
Charles L. Patton.
James W. Patton.
William L. Patton.
Wm. A. Pavey.
Edward W. Payne.
Jesse K. Payton.
A. T. Peters.
D. Lyman Phillips.
J. Robt. Phillips.
Herman Pierik.
John C. Pierik.
A. C. Piersel.
*John Pope.
A. J. Portch.
Fred W. Potter.
Rufus M. Potts.
Charles A. Power.
H. T. Pride.
Arthur E. Prince.
* John A. Prince.
Edgar C Pruitt.
G. W. Quackenbush.
* Deceased.
John Quinlan.
John P. Ramsey.
Albert H. Rankin.
Isaac N. Ransom.
Roy R. Reece.
Thomas Rees.
Carl M. Reisch.
Edward Reisch.
Frank Reisch.
George Reisch.
George Reisch, Jr.
Joseph Reisch.
Leonard Reisch.
Henry C. Remann.
Benjamin Rich.
Franklin Ridgley.
William Ridgley.
Chas. D. Roberts.
Chas. H. Robinson,
Edward S. Robinson.
W. E. Robinson.
Roy F. Rogers.
Euclid B. Rogers.
John D. Roper.
*James A. Rose.
C. H. Rottger.
Albert Salzen stein.
Emanuel Salzenstein.
L. J. Samuels.
M. D. SchafE.
G. H. Schonbacher.
F. L. Schlierbach.
John S. Schnepp.
J. B. Scholes.
Saml. D. Scholes.
Charles Schuck.
C. W. H. Schuck.
J. H. Schuck.
Edgar S. Scott.
John W. Scott.
O. G. Scott.
*Thomas W. Scott.
Roy M. Seeley.
Richings J. Shand.
XIV
Lawrence Y. Sherman.
*Chas. M. Shepherd.
Wm B. Shepherd.
Clark B. Shipp.
John H. Sikes.
A. W. Sikking.
Frank Simmons.
Geo. M. Skelly.
Dewit W. Smith.
E, S. Smith.
Glenn D. Smith.
Hal M. Smith.
Wm. W. Smith.
E. A. Snively.
H. M. Solenberger.
W. C. Sommer.
Latham T. Souther.
J. W. Southwick.
W. J. Spaulding.
E. A. Stadden.
Geo. B. Stadden.
W. C. Starck.
Wm. H. Stead.
Geo. F. Stericker.
Albert D. Stevens.
*Henry A. Stevens.
J. H. Story.
Sam'l J. Stout.
R. H. Strongman.
J. W. Stuart.
Thos. W. Sudduth.
R. M. SuUivan.
Wm. H. Sullivan.
W. W. Swett, Jr.
H. G. Swirles.
J. Mack Tanner.
Louis C. Taylor.
Will Taylor.
E. R. Thayer.
James W. Templeman.
W. A. Townseud.
*Deceased.
Wm. W. Tracey.
H. H. Tuttle.
Joseph W. Vance.
Burke Vancil.
Jas. R. B. VanCleave.
Walter S. Van Duyn.
Peter Vredenburgh, Sr.
Robert O. Vredenburg.
Thos. D. Vredenburg.
Wm. R. Vredenburg.
C. H. Walters.
J. C. Walters.
Philip B. Warren.
Howard K. Weber.
Frank Weidlocher.
Charles Werner.
Charles R. Wescott.
Loren E. Wheeler.
Frank D. Whipp.
*J. E. White.
Charles S. Whitney.
Lewis N. Wiggins.
Harry T. Willett.
Samuel J. Willett.
Daniel T. Williams.
Bluford Wilson.
G. M. Wilson.
H. Clay Wilson.
Henry W. Wilson.
J. F. Wilson.
Thomas W. Wilson.
Chas. G. Wineteer.
T. E. Wing.
C. M. Woods.
W. F. Workman.
Richard Yates.
John York.
W. A. Young.
William Zapf .
Joseph Zimmerman.
Chas. W. Zumbrook.
XT
LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
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LINCOLN
MASTEK or MEN
a ^tuD^ (n Ci^atartct;
BY
ALONZO ROTHSCHILD
SPECIAL EDITION PUBLISHED FOR THE
LINCOLN CENTENNIAL ASSOCIATION BY
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
^hz mitetj^ibe pce^i^ Cambribge
1912
COPYRIGHT 1906 BY ALONZO ROTHSCHILD
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
TO THE MEMORY OP
MY FATHER
JOHN ROTHSCHILD
ONE OF THE PLAIN PEOPLE
WHO BELIEVED IN LINCOLN
THIS BOOK
IS AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED
CONTENTS
I. A Samson of the Backwoods 1
II. Love, War, and Politics 34
in. Giants, Big and Little 79
IV. The Power behind the Throne .... 121
V. An Indispensable Man . 157
VI. The Curbing of Stanton 223
VII. How the Pathfinder lost the Trail . . 289
VIII. The Young Napoleon 327
A List of the Books cited 427
Notes ^39
Index ^97
ILLUSTRATIONS
Abraham Lincoln Frontispiece
From an unretouched negative, made in March, 1864, when the
President commissioned Ulysses S. Grant Lieutenant-General
and placed him in command of all the armies of the Republic.
This negative, with one of General Grant, was made, it is said,
in commaemoration of the event.
Abkaham Lincoln 34
From an original photograph belonging to Mr. William Lloyd
Garrison of Lexington, Mass. This photograph was made by
S. M. Fassett of Chicago in October, 1859, and the negative was
lost in the great Chicago fire of 1871. Another photograph taken
at the same sitting, but with a different expression and inclina-
tion of the head, is in the collection of Mr. Herbert W. Fay of
DeKalb, Illinois, and was reproduced in half-tone for Miss Ida
M. Tarbell's Life of Lincoln in McClure's Magazine.
Stephen A. Douglas 80
From a photograph by Brady in the Library of the State De-
partment at Washington.
William H. Seward 130
From a photograph by Brady in the Library of the State De-
partment at Washington.
Salmon P. Chase 158
From a photograph by Daniel Bendann, Baltimore, Md.
Edwin M. Stanton 224
From a photograph by Brady in the Library of the State De-
partment at Washington.
John C. Fremont 290
From a photograph by Brady in the Library of the State De-
partment at Washington.
George B. McClellan 328
From the Collection of the Massachusetts Order of the Loyal
Legion of the United States.
LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
CHAPTER I
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS
The spirit of mastery moved Abraham Lincoln at
an early age — how early, history and tradition are not
agreed. Scantily supported stories of boyish control over
his schoolmates, supplemented by more fully authenti-
cated narratives of his youthful prowess, leave no doubt,
however, that his power came to him before the period
at which some of his biographers are pleased to take up
the detailed account of his life. Trivial as the records of
these callow triumphs may seem, they are essential to an
understanding of the successive steps by which this man
mounted from obscurity to the government of a great
people.
If, as has been asserted by an eminent educator, the
experiences and instructions of the first seven years of a
person's life do more to mold and determine his charac-
ter than all subsequent training, the history of Lincoln's
development, like that of most great men, lacks an im-
portant chapter ; for the scraps about this period of his
childhood that have been preserved yield but a meagre
story. A ne'er-do-well father, destined to drift from one
badly tilled patch of land to another, a gentle mother,
who is said to have known refinements foreign to the
cheerless Kentucky cabin,^ a sparsely settled community
of " poor whites," two brief snatches of A B C schooling
under itinerant masters, stinted living, a few chores, still
fewer pastimes, and all is said. Not quite all, for the
2 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
playmates of that childhood have, in their old age, recalled
a few incidents that are not without interest.
One of these anecdotes belongs here. It reveals "a
mere spindle of a boy," as one old gentleman ^ describes
the little Abraham, giving a good account of himself in
possibly his first impact with opposing strength. The lads
of the neighborhood, so runs the story, were sent after
school hours to the mill with corn to be ground. While
awaiting their turn, they passed the time, as at the noon
recesses, with frolics and fights. In these Lincoln did
not participate.
" He was," says Major Alexander Sympson, who tells
the tale, "the shyest, most reticent, most uncouth and
awkward-appearing, homeliest and worse dressed of any in
the entire crowd." So superlatively wretched a butt could
not hope to look on long unmolested. He was attacked
one day, as he stood near a tree, by a larger boy with
others at his back. "But," said the major, "the very
acme of astonishment was experienced by the eagerly
expectant crowd. For Lincoln soundly thrashed the first,
second, and third boy, in succession ; and then, placed his
back against the tree, defied the whole crowd, and taunted
them with cowardice." We may fancy this juvenile Fitz-
James shouting : —
" Come one, come all ! this tree shall fly
From its firm base as soon as I."
Yet who shall say whether in the other little boys' dis-
colored eyes
" Respect was mingled with surprise,
And the stern joy which warriors feel
In foemen worthy of their steel " ?
The veracious historian has nothing to offer under this
head ; but he assures us, which is perhaps more to the
point, that the hero of the scene " was disturbed no more,
then or thereafter." ^
Abraham was in his eighth year when the Lincoln
family migrated from its rude surroundings on Knob
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS 3
Creek to a still ruder frontier settlement in southern
Indiana.* Here the boy grew to manhood under the crass
conditions at that time peculiar to the New West. Fron-
tier life with its toil, its hardships, and its ever recur-
ring physical problems furnished, no doubt, certain of the
elements which were some day to be combined in his
much-extolled strength of character. What is not so
easily accounted for, is the eagerness of easy-going Tom
Lincoln's son to lead his fellows, in school and out, on
that uninspiring dead level called Pigeon Creek. The
settlers were, in the main, coarse-grained and illiterate ;
for education was an exotic that, naturally enough, did
not thrive in the lower fringe of the Indiana wilderness.
"There were some schools so called," wrote Mr. Lincoln
many years later, " but no qualification was ever required
of a teacher beyond ' readin', writin', and cipherin' ' to the
Rule of Three. If a straggler, supposed to understand
Latin, happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was
looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing
to excite ambition for education." ^ Nothing, indeed, un-
less we accept Mr. Emerson's theory of life as a search
after power, an element with which the world is so satu-
rated to the remotest chink or crevice, that no honest seek-
ing for it goes unrewarded. How honestly Abraham
at this time pursued the search, and with what success,
may be learned from the early companions upon whom
his strenuous efforts to learn " by littles," as he himself
once quaintly expressed it,^ left a lasting impression.
They supply glimpses of him snatching a few minutes for
reading while the plow-horses rested at the end of a row,
trying his hand at odd hours on the composition of
*' pieces " like those in the newspapers, poring at night
over his books in the uncertain light of the logs, and cov-
ering the blade of the wooden fire-shovel, in lieu of a
slate, with examples, which were laboriously scraped off
by means of a drawing-knife after they had been trans-
ferred to his carefully economized exercise-book.^
4 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Sucli industry could not, even in a backwoods " chink or
crevice," fail of its reward. The twelve months of spo-
radic schooling* that stretched between Abraham's sev-
enth and seventeenth years yielded many small triumphs.
" He was always at the head of his class," writes Nathaniel
Grigsby, " and passed us rapidly in his studies." ^ As
spelling was the most popular branch, he made himself
so proficient in it as to become the acknowledged leader
of the school. In fact, the whole country is said to have
gone down before him in spelling-matches, the side upon
which he happened to stand holding a guaranty of victory.
Hence he was not infrequently, like the old medal winners
at the art exhibitions, ruled out of the contest. Becoming
by dint of practice, moreover, the best penman in the
place, he was often called upon to write the letters of his
untutored neighbors ; and his younger schoolfellows, in
their admiration of his penmanship, also paid tribute
to his skill by asking him to set them copies.^** One man
recalled, many years later, this text, which, among others,
Lincoln had written for him : —
" Good boys who to their books apply
Will all be great men by and by."
The writer of the couplet, it may be added, applied him-
self so eagerly to his own books, and to those that he
managed to borrow, as to increase betimes his modicum of
importance." " He was the learned boy among us un-
learned folks," says a lady whose girlish ignorance he, on
more than one occasion, sought to enlighten.^ Nor was
she the only schoolmate upon whom he impressed this supe-
riority. " Abe beat all his masters," says another, " and it
was no use for him to try to learn any more from them." ^^
While still another testifies : " When he appeared in com-
pany, the boys would gather and cluster around hira to
hear him talk. . . . Mr. Lincoln was figurative in his
speeches, talks, and conversations. He argued much from
analogy, and explained things hard for us to understand^
by stories, maxims, tales, and figures. He would almost
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS 5
always point his lesson or idea by some story that was
plain and near to us, that we might instantly see the
force and bearing of what he said." " Reference is here
made, no doubt, to some of the accomplishments that
Abraham owed to no school ; but which he employed,
none the less, in these youthful attempts at scholastic
leadership.
The taste for stump speeches that prevailed in the
Pigeon Creek region, as in other western communities,
offered an early incentive to Lincoln's ambition. As a boy,
he gathered his playmates about him and repeated with
droll mimicry what he could remember of some sermon that
he had recently heard ; or improvised his own discourse, if
some transgression on the part of one of his auditors hap-
pened to suggest a subject. The topics to which he devoted
his eloquence, as he grew older, were naturally based upon
the political controversies of the day. So clever did he be-
come at these " speeches " that he lost no opportunity for
winning applause with them when an appreciative audience
was at hand. Then, not even the ordinary considerations
of time and place restrained his enthusiasm. "When it
was announced that Abe had taken the stump in the har-
vest-field, there was an end of work," records Mr. Lamon.
" The hands flocked around him, and listened to his curi-
ous speeches with infinite delight. ' The sight of such a
thing amused us all,' says Mrs. Lincoln, though she admits
that her husband was compelled to break it up with the
strong hand ; and poor Abe was many times dragged from
the platform, and hustled off to his work in no gentle man-
ner." ^^ But after working-hours, he met with no such
check in the nearby village store at Gentryville, where
he entertained the admiring loungers until midnight
with arguments, stories, jokes, and coarse rhymes.^^ The
qualities, moreover, that made him the oracle of the gro-
cery won for him undisputed preeminence at the prim-
itive social gatherings of the neighborhood. His arrival
was the signal for the festivities to begin, and his lead, as
6 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
the chronicles indicate, was maintained with a sure hand,
to the end.
It is not to be assumed that Abraham was generally
considered a prodigy by the people among whom he grew
to manhood, or that he himself was at all times conscious
of his steady trend toward leadership in these small affairs
of his daily life. The few incidents strung together here
have a significance to the student of history that they
could not have had for the rude settlers who saw them in
unrelated parts, and unillumined by the search-light which
the halo of the great man's later career casts back over his
humble beginnings. Yet there can be no doubt that the
superiority of " the learned boy " was recognized by many
of his associates. His second-mother — for why apply to
this sterling woman a title that would ill describe her ? —
had a confidence in his powers which she influenced her
husband, not without difficulty, to share. ^' Thomas Lin-
coln, like some of his relatives and neighbors, was inclined
to regard as lazy this son who preferred a book to a spade.
And speaking of Abraham many years later, cousin Dennis
Hanks, one of the companions of his boyhood, said: —
" Lincoln was lazy, a very lazy man. He was always
reading, scribbling, writing, ciphering, writing poetry and
the like." ''
To which neighbor John Romine, whose recollections
had also somehow escaped becoming steeped in the in-
cense of hero-worship, adds : —
" He worked for me, but was always reading and think-
ing. I used to get mad at him for it. I say he was awfully
lazy. He would laugh and talk — crack his jokes and tell
stories all the time ; did n't love work half as much as his
pay. He said to me one day that his father taught him
to work, but he never taught him to love it." ^^
None of these persons understood the boy, but it is not
at all clear that the boy understood himself. With Abra-
ham's desires to excel his schoolfellows were mingled vague
dreams of larger competitions, that carried him, in fancy,
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS 7
far beyond the narrow horizon of his chinks and crevices,
into the broad world beyond. There, like his favorite hero,
Parson Weems's impossible Washington, he hoped to
achieve greatness.^" Indeed, when Mrs. Josiah Crawford,
who took a motherly interest in the lad, reproved him for
teasing the girls in her kitchen, and asked him what he
supposed would become of him, he promptly answered,
" I '11 be President." This prediction, so common in the
mouths of American boys, whose eyes are fixed early upon
the first place in the nation, is said to have been repeated
by him, from time to time, whether seriously, some of his
biographers are inclined to doubt.^^ There can be no
question, however, as to the more important fact — this
particular boy had taken his first halting steps up the steep
which leads to that eminence.
The mental superiority which gave Lincoln a certain
distinction in the eyes of some of the settlers among
whom he spent his youth would have been regarded,
even by them, with scant respect, had it not been ac-
companied by what appealed to the admiration of all
his neighbors alike — physical preeminence. Strength of
body was rated high by these frontiersmen, whose very
existence depended upon the iron in their frames. Over-
coming, with rugged self-reliance, the obstacles which
uncompromising nature opposed to them on every side,
they had hewn their homes out of the wilderness by sheer
force of muscle. Somewhat of that same vigfor was re-
quired, after the clearings had been made and the rude
shelters had been thrown up, to win day by day a sem-
blance of human comfort. What wonder that these men
were concerned with facts, not theories ; with the harden-
ing of the sinews, not the cultivation of the brain ! No
mere bookman, however witty or wise, could long have
held their esteem. Their standard of excellence, though
rough, had the merit of being simple — so simple that the
very children might grasp its full meaning. One of them
certainly did. For Abraham's singular ambition to know
8 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
was not allowed to diminish his part in the more com-
mon ambition to do. On the contrary, the two aspirations
appear to have kept pace so evenly in him as to reen-
force each other. What of ascendancy his alert mind
alone failed to gain was easily established when the intel-
lect called into play his powerful physique.
The sturdy constitution that Lincoln inherited from five
generations of pioneers was hardened by the toil and
exposure to which, even more than most backwoods boys,
he was subjected from early childhood.^^ " Abraham,
though very young, was large of his age, and had an ax
put into his hands at once," wrote he, referring, in that
all too brief autobiography, to the time of the settlement
near Little Pigeon Creek, " and from that till within his
twenty-third year he was almost constantly handling that
most useful instrument — less, of course, in plowing and
harvesting seasons." ^^ The fifteen years of labor thus
summarily disposed of constituted, for the most part, the
physical discipline of Lincoln's life. How severe this was
may be inferred from the mere mention of what was re-
quired of him. As he became strong enough, he cleared
openings in the forest, cut timber, split rails, chopped
wood, guided the cumbrous shovel-plow, hoed corn, and
pulled fodder. When the grain was ripe, he harvested it
with a sickle, threshed it with a flail, cleaned it with a
sheet, and took it to the mill, where it was laboriously
ground into unbolted flour with equally primitive con-
trivances. Together with these tasks of seed-time and
harvest, he fetched and carried, carpentered and tinkered,
in short, earned his supper of corn-dodgers and his
shake-down of leaves in the loft, many times over. Never-
theless, when the home work was done, Thomas Lincoln,
who, whatever may have been his faults, cannot justly
be accused of erring on the side of indulgence, hired him
out as a day laborer among the neighbors.^^ They, of
course, did not spare the boy any more than did his father.
No chore was deemed too mean, no job too great, for this
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS 9
good-natured young fellow. So that, all in all, heavy-
drafts must have been made upon him.^^ He met them —
despite his dislike for manual labor — on demand, checking
out freely of his strength, while unconsciously acquiring,
by way of exchange, more than the equivalent in virile
self-reliance ; and the perfect command over his resources,
in any emergency, that later became characteristic of him,
should in large measure be credited to this pioneer ac-
counting. In fact, of Lincoln may be said what Fuller
quaintly said of Drake, the " pains and patience in his
youth knit the joints of his soul."
For the more palpable returns in kind from his outlay
of brawn, Abraham did not have to wait long. As early
as his eleventh year began the remarkable development
in physique which culminated before he had reached his
seventeenth birthday. At that time, having attained his
full height, — within a fraction of six feet and four
inches, — he was, according to accepted descriptions of
him, lean, large-boned, and muscular, thin through the
chest, narrow across the slightly stooping shoulders, long
of limb, large of hand and foot, sure of reach, and powerful
of grip, — the very type of the North Mississippi valley
pioneer at his best.^* The strength of the young giant, as
well as his skill in applying it, easily won for him the
lead among the vigorous men of this class on Pigeon
Creek. They have handed down tales of his achievements
that call to mind the legends with which have been
adorned the histories of Samson and of Milo. Like these
heroes, Lincoln is said to have performed prodigies of
muscle; and still further like them, despite the skepti-
cism aroused, naturally enough, by extraordinary details,
he may be looked upon as having been endowed with the
attributes upon which the stories essentially rest. Whether
or not he performed this or that particular feat exactly
as it is described, he did, beyond question, impress him-
self upon the settlers as '* the longest and strongest " of
them all.
lo LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Lincoln's employment throughout the neighborhood as
a hired man afforded him abundant opportunity for the
display of his powers. A certain good-humored sense of
duty, no less than a never flagging ambition to excel,
stimulated him to make " a clean sweep," as he once
phrased it, of whatever he did. These jobs, it should be
remembered, were not entirely to his taste, and he " was
no hand," says one old lady, " to pitch into his work like
killing snakes " ; ^^ yet, when he did take hold — and his
services were always in request — he was bound to out-
work his employers. One of them, who became his fast
friend, asserted : —
" He could strike with a maul a heavier blow — could
sink an ax deeper into wood than any man I ever saw." ^
And cousin Dennis, a not too consistent Boswell, forgot,
in a moment of enthusiasm, his published opinion that
Abraham was "lazy, very lazy," long enough to exclaim:
" My, how he would chop ! His ax would flash and bite
into a sugar-tree or sycamore, and down it would come.
If you heard him fellin' trees in a clearin', you would say
there were three men at work by the way the trees fell." "^
A stripling who handled, in that fashion, the back-
woodsmen's favorite implement could not fail to command
their respect ; but it was when Lincoln threw the ax
aside and put forth his strength unhampered, that he com-
pelled the homage so grateful to his pride. " Some of his
feats " — Mr. Lamon is our authority — " almost surpass
belief. . . . Richardson, a neighbor, declares that he could
carry a load to which the strength of ' three ordinary men '
would scarcely be equal. He saw him quietly pick up and
walk away with ' a chicken-house, made of poles pinned
together and covered, that weighed at least six hundred,
if not much more.' At another time the Richardsons were
building a corn-crib. Abe was there, and, seeing three or
four men preparing ' sticks ' upon which to carry some
huge posts, he relieved them of all further trouble by
shouldering the posts, single-handed, and walking away
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS ii
with them to the place where they were wanted." ^" The
Richardson chicken-house and the posts of the corn-crib
should obviously go down in story, side by side with those
doors and posts of Gaza that were carried, with similar
ease, on the shoulders of the Hebrew Hercules.
More remarkable even than the feats that, on occa-
sion, distinguished Lincoln at work, were the exploits in
sport, to which the applause of the crowd quickened his
sinews.^^ Not content with a mastery easily maintained
over his comrades in the rough games and contests popu-
lar on the frontier, he gave exhibitions of strength that
established his reputation as an athlete without a peer.
This preeminence he held against all comers during his
youth on Pigeon Creek and his early manhood in New
Salem.^ At the latter place he seems to have reached
the acme of his physical powers ; and some of his recent
biographers, the limit of their credulity. Messrs. Lamon
and Herndon, however, whose records of this period are
the most complete, sustain each other in the story that
Lincoln one day astonished the village by lifting a box of
stones which weighed about a thousand pounds.^^ This,
they explain, was done by means of a gearing of ropes
and straps, with which he was harnessed to the box — a
method somewhat like that employed at the present time
by the " strong men " who, for the entertainment of dime-
museum spectators, raise even heavier weights.
Another of Lincoln's notable performances, for the
authenticity of which Mr. Herndon also vouches, grew
out of the admiration with which the young giant was
regarded by his companions. One of them, William Gr.
Greene by name, was once lauding him, so the story goes,
as the strongest man in Illinois, when a stranger, who
happened to be present, claimed that honor for another.
The dispute led to a wager in which Greene bet that his
champion could lift a cask holding forty gallons of whiskey,
high enough to take a drink out of the bung-hole. In the
test that ensued, Lincoln with " apparent ease " and " to
12 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
the astonishment of the incredulous stranger," did as had
been stipulated. " He did not," the narrator is careful to
add, " stand erect and elevate the barrel, but squatted
down and lifted it to his knees, rolling it over until hia
mouth came opposite the bung."
" The bet is mine," said Greene, as the cask was replaced
upon the floor ; " but that is the first dram of whiskey I
ever saw you swallow, Abe."
" And I have n't swallowed that, you see," replied Lin-
coln, as he spurted out the liquor.^*
In this final episode of the little story is to be found
a clue, if not to the source of his extraordinary vigor, at
least to its continued preservation, unimpaired by the
vices that have shorn so many Samsons of their strength. ^^
Physique was not the only criterion of leadership
among the rough-and-ready settlers of the West. Neither
the strong man nor the tall man was necessarily " the best
man." That title was reserved for him who, when there
were no Indians to cope with, made good his claim to it
against his neighbors, in the friendly wrestling-matches
of common occurrence, as well as in the more serious,
though happily less frequent, fights by which the back-
woodsmen, remote from courts and constables, were wont
to settle their disputes. Under such conditions, the most
peaceable of men learn — as the phrase goes — to give
a good account of themselves. This was probably the
case with our five generations of Lincoln pathfinders ; for
the strain of Quaker blood, that flowed at some distant
point into their veins, had lost much, if not all, of its non-
resistant quality before reaching Abraham.^^ His father,
although a man of quiet disposition, had allowed no scru-
ples to get between him and the adversary who aroused
his slow anger. A sinewy, well-knit frame, handled with
courage and agility, had marked Thomas Lincoln, in his
prime, as a dangerous antagonist. " He thrashed," says
the chronicle, " the monstrous bully of Breckinridge
County, in three minutes, and came off without a scratch."
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS 13
Several other border Hectors, according to tradition, found
him to be invulnerable ; and one, with whom he had a
bitter quarrel, came out of a rough-and-tumble combat of
teeth, as well as of fists, without his nose.^' Moreover, it
should be borne in mind that Abraham's uncle Mordecai,
" fond," as we are told, in his younger days, " of playing
a game of fisticuffs," had been an inveterate Indian
hunter ; ^ and that the father of Mordecai and Thomas, he
for whom Abraham was named, had, in the days of Daniel
Boone, been killed by the savages, while taking part in
the struggle for Kentucky. The scion of such stock could
not, under favorable circumstances, lack the qualities that,
in personal encounters, make a man formidable. In fact,
these traits, when combined with the intelligence and
strength that so early distinguished Abraham, rendered
him, as was to be expected, almost invincible.
Lincoln's advantage during this pioneer period is to be
ascribed largely, but not altogether, to preponderance of
size and muscle. Those abnormally long arms and legs,
impelled by sinews of iron, counted, it is true, for much.
On the other hand, there was little that suggested the
wrestler in his lank, loosely jointed form with its thin
neck, contracted chest, and insufficient weight. These
defects must therefore have been offset, as indeed they
were, by alertness, skill, and — most important of all —
those inherited attributes of mastery which were summed
up by the ancients in the single word, stomach. The
spirit with which, as a schoolboy, Abraham was observed,
in the opening scene, to defend himself against heavy
odds, carried him successfully through many subsequent
encounters. Whether these were in sport or in earnest,
they usually left him, as one old friend expressed it,
" cock of the walk." ^ Another, who presumably made
frequent trials in boyhood of Abraham's powers, said :
" I was ten years older, but I could n't rassle him down.
His legs was too long for me to throw him. He would
fling one foot upon my shoulder and make me swing
14 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
corners swift." *" Still others bore witness to his pugilis-
tic triumphs ; and Mr. Lincoln himself found pleasure
in recalling his chaplet of wild olives many years later —
even after the ballots of a nation had been woven into
his ripest laurels. " All I had to do," said he, " was to
extend one arm to a man's shoulder, and, with weight
of body and strength of arms, give him a trip that gener-
ally sent him sprawling on the ground, which would so
astonish him as to give him a quietus."*^ Such victo-
ries had carried his fame, by the time he had reached
his nineteenth year, throughout the Pigeon Creek clear-
ings and beyond, so that none of the Hoosiers who knew
him or who knew of him were willing — if the record
may be trusted — to hazard at once their bones and their
reputations, in unequal combat against so redoubtable a
champion.
Debarred from the wrestling-ring as he had been ex-
cluded from the spelling-match, and for the same flatter-
ing reason, our Crichton of the backwoods wore his honors
as soberly as could be expected. He appears, notwithstand-
ing the coarse, unrestrained manners of the people about
him, to have misapplied his superiority in comparatively
few instances. These cases, such as they are, should,
nevertheless, not be overlooked, however much the men-
tion of them may offend the sensitive piety of the hero-
worshipers. They need a reminder, now and then, do
these worthy people, that their idol, when in the flesh,
stood, like other human creatures, on the earth. If their
image of him, therefore, is to be faithful, its head may be
reared to the clouds in all the glory of fine gold, so they
see to it that the feet are of clay. What of sludge lies
hidden at the bottom of the character usually rises, when
agitated by passion, to the surface. As this is observed
in the case of ripened manhood, how much more is it
to be looked for during those hobbledehoy days that,
lying between youth and maturity, partake at times of the
nature of both — the mischievousness of the boy together
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS 15
with the pride of the man. It was at such a period that
Abraham's resentment toward those against whom he had
grievances, real or fancied, sometimes found vent. His
weapons, in this respect at least, like those of the versatile
young Scot, might have been physical or intellectual, at
will ; for, among other accomplishments, he had attained
a certain facility at the scribbling, in prose and in doggerel
verse, of the coarsest of satires. These, thanks to their
wit no less than to their audacity, are said to have left
deeper and more enduring hurts than even his fists could
have inflicted. Hence the few persons who were so un-
fortunate as to incur the satirist's anger were impaled on
the nib of his goose-quill, amidst laughter which started
with the grocery store loungers and did not cease until it
had echoed and reechoed through the neighborhood for
many a day. That some of these lampoons were indelicate,
even indecent, need not be dwelt upon here. It is sufii-
cient to notice that they were well adapted to their pur-
pose, and that the author employed them as a means of
laying low those whom he might not otherwise have over-
come.
The victims of these attacks did not, for obvious rea-
sons, retaliate in kind. Nor might they hope, on any field,
to humiliate this masterful " fellow, who could both write
and fight and in both was equally skilful." One quarrel,
however, waxed so hot that, by common consent, nothing
would cool the fevered situation but bloodletting. And
this is how it happened. Abraham's only sister had died
shortly after her marriage to Aaron Grigsby. Thereupon
arose between the Grigsbys and the Lincolns a feeling of
ill-will, the cause of which is not clear, nor is it material
now. It was important enough then to result in the exclu-
sion of the tall young brother-in-law from the joint wed-
ding celebration of Aaron's two brothers — a memorable
entertainment, full to overflowing with feasting, dancing,
and merry-making. Such a frolic was not to be had every
day, and Abraham's regret that he was not present to
i6 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
lead the fun, as was his wont, must have been keen.
The slight vexed him even more than did the disap-
pointment, for the Grigsbjs constituted "the leading
family " in the community. To punish them, he forthwith
wrote The First Chronicles of Reuben, a narration in
mock-scriptural phrase, of an indelicate prank that is said
to have been played upon the young wedded couples, at
his instigation.*^ The public ridicule which this brought
down upon the family failed to appease the satirist's
wounded self-love ; and he followed it, in rhyme, with an
onslaught even more stinging. The outraged honor of the
Grigsbys demanded satisfaction according to the Pigeon
Creek code ; so the eldest son, William, throwing discre-
tion to the winds, issued a challenge for a fight, which
their tormentor readily accepted.
When the combatants were about to enter the ring,
Abraham chivalrously announced that as his antagonist
was confessedly his inferior in every respect, he would
forego the pleasure of thrashing him, and would let his
step-brother,^ John, do battle in his stead. This offer,
having, together with other magnanimous declarations,
been applauded by the spectators, was accepted by
Grigsby. The fight then began ; but alas ! for Abraham's
good resolutions. They were not proof against his cham-
pion's defeat. By a singular coincidence, moreover, Lin-
coln's biographers, as well as he, deviate just a trifle, at
this point, from the straight course ; that is to say, all
of them save Mr. Lamon, who sticks to his text, and, in
the face of popular disapproval, describes the unworthy
scene which ensued. " John started out with fine pluck
and spirit," says he, "but in a little while Billy got in
some clever hits, and Abe began to exhibit symptoms of
great uneasiness. Another pass or two, and John flagged
quite decidedly, and it became evident that Abe was
anxiously casting about for some pretext to break the
ring. At length, when John was fairly down and Billy on
top, and all the spectators cheering, swearing, and pressing
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS 17
up to the very edge of the ring, Abe cried out that Bill
Boland showed foul play, and, bursting out of the crowd,
seized Grigsby by the heels, and flung him off. Having
righted John and cleared the battle-ground of all oppo-
nents, he swung a whiskey bottle over his head, and swore
that he was ' the big buck of the lick.' It seems that
nobody of the Grigsby faction, not one in that large assem-
bly of bullies, cared to encounter the sweep of Abe's tre-
mendously long and muscular arms, and so he remained
master of ' the lick.' He was not content, however, with
a naked triumph, but vaunted himself in the most offen-
sive manner. He singled out the victorious but cheated
Billy and, making sundry hostile demonstrations, declared
that he could whip him then and there. Billy meekly said
he did not doubt that, but that if Abe would make things
even between them by fighting with pistols, he would not
be slow to grant him a meeting. But Abe replied that he
was not going to fool away his life on a single shot ; and
so Billy was fain to put up with the poor satisfaction he
had already received." *^ The question naturally suggested,
as to whether Abraham was justified in his behavior,
may be disregarded here. Not so, the account of the
incident itself, which, irrespective of ethics or good taste,
is essential to an understanding of what may be termed
the aggressive side of his character, during these formative
days.
Equally significant, though not so discreditable as the
Grigsby broil, was an encounter in which young Lincoln
figured not long after this. It brings us to his river life,
with the novel responsibilities and dangers that must have
entered — how much or how little no one can say — into
the making of the master. Like so many native Kentuck-
ians, he evinced, while still a boy, an aptitude for the
management of a boat among the uncertain currents of
the Ohio. This made him particularly useful to James
Taylor, the ferry-keeper at the mouth of Anderson's Creek,
to whom he was hired in his seventeenth year ; but, what
1 8 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
was of greater importance, it secured to him, three years
later, his first voyage down the Mississippi.^^ A trading
expedition to the towns on the banks of the river as far
as New Orleans was projected, after the manner of the
times, by James Gentry, the storekeeper in Gentryville,
near by. His son, Allen, was placed in charge of a flat-
boat, with a cargo of produce, and Lincoln was hired to
accompany him as bow-hand.^^
The trip was, so far as is known, prosperous and un-
eventful, until the voyagers tied up, one night, at the
plantation of Madame Duchesne, a few miles below Baton
Rouge. A gang of her slaves, seven in number, thinking,
no doubt, that to rob and perhaps to murder the two boys
while they slept would be a simple affair, boarded the
boat. Their shuffling footsteps aroused Allen, who, to
frighten them off, shouted, " Bring the guns, Lincoln !
Shoot them ! " The big bow-hand responded promptly,
but, for reasons that we need not stop to explain, he
brought no guns. He did bring what must have been
very like a grievous crab-tree cudgel, with which, after
the fashion of the giant in the allegory, he laid about
him so impartially that those of the negroes who were
not tumbled overboard took to their heels. As they fled,
he carried the war into Africa, pursuing them, with
Gentry, in the darkness for some distance. Then, bleed-
ing but triumphant, the boys hastened back, and to avoid
a return of the enemy in force, they speedily, as Mr. Lin-
coln himself once, in nautical phraseology, expressed it,
" cut cable, weighed anchor, and left." This was the first
occasion on which the negro question brought itself to his
attention forcibly. It may be said to have left its impres-
sion in more ways than one. For, many years afterward,
he showed his friends the scar on his forehead from a
wound received in the fracas ; and still later, when he
briefly put before a nation the important incidents of his
life, a place was found for that midnight victory over
brute strength and superior numbers. ^^
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS 19
During the ensuing few years, the young boatman
must have kept his laurels green. At least, he did not,
even in the first absorbing struggles of life on his own
account, suffer them to wither. His reputation as a
wrestler appears to have preceded him to Thomas Lincoln's
last home, in Coles County, Illinois, when Abraham, after
his second flat-boat voyage down the Mississippi in the
summer of 1831, came there on a brief visit. The arri-
val of so noted a wrestler called for action on the part of
Daniel Needham, the local champion. This worthy lost
no time in issuing a challenge, which the newcomer as
promptly accepted. In the public contest that ensued, the
boatman grassed his opponent twice with such ease as to
arouse the latter's anger and the delight of the spectators.
"Lincoln," he shouted, "you have thrown me twice,
but you can't whip me ! "
" Needham," was the answer, " are you satisfied that I
can throw you ? If you are not, and must be convinced
through a thrashing, I will do that too, for your sake."
Upon second thought, the defeated bully, who had
no doubt expected to overawe his antagonist with the
threat of a fight, concluded that he was " satisfied," and
his honors reverted to Lincoln. ^^
Several weeks later, the young man, then in his twenty-
third year, entered upon his duties as clerk of Den-
ton Offutt's country store, which had just been opened
at New Salem, in western Illinois. The village was in-
fested by a lawless, rollicking set of rowdies from a
neighboring settlement, known as " the Clary's Grove
boys." Easy-going in everything save mischief, and
always ready on the shortest possible notice for sport or
riot, they dominated the place at an expenditure of energy
that would have worked wonders had it not been mis-
applied. As it was, they lived up to certain crude notions
of chivalry that led them, at times, into acts of generos-
ity toward the village folk ; but kindness to the stranger
within their gates had no place, be it understood, in their
20 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
code. On the contrary, the desire to test a newcomer's
mettle appears to have prompted conduct the reverse of
kind. When their impertinent challenges to contests of
various sorts were not acceptable to a stranger, he was
asked to say what he would do in case another gentleman
should pull his nose or otherwise make free with him.
*' If," says the sympathetic historian, " he did not seem
entirely decided in his views as to what should properly
be done in such a contingency, perhaps he would be
nailed in a hogshead and rolled down New Salem hill;
perhaps his ideas would be brightened by a brief ducking
in the Sangamon ; or perhaps he would be scoffed, kicked,
and cuffed by a great number of persons in concert until
he reached the confines of the village, and then turned
adrift as being unfit company for the people of that settle-
ment. If, however, the stranger consented to engage in a
tussle with one of his persecutors, it was usually arranged
that there should be foul play, with nameless impositions
and insults, which would inevitably change the affair into
a fight." These gentle ruffians had either taken the mea-
sure of Offutt's tall clerk, or had accepted the standing
with which rumor invested him. At all events, they made
no attempt " to naturalize " him, as they termed it ; and
Lincoln might have enjoyed entire immunity had it not
been for the boastful tongue of his employer.
Denton Offutt, a good-hearted, talkative, reckless specu-
lator, of the Colonel Sellers type, regarded Lincoln as
the most promising of his many investments. His ad-
miration for the young fellow, whom he had previously
employed as a boatman, was, unlike most of his fads,
based upon experience. Indeed, he had sounded the
depths of Lincoln's talents, mental as well as physical,
with remarkable precision. From repeated predictions of
his protege's destined greatness, Offutt usually turned to
the more timely declaration that Abe could whip or throw
any man in Sangamon County. Such a boast could of
course not go long unchallenged in the hearing of " the
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS 21
Clary's Grove boys." Presently Bill Clary himself laid
a wager of ten dollars with Off utt, matching against Lin-
coln the biggest bruiser of the gang, Jack Armstrong by
name, a sort of local Brom Bones, who is described as " a
powerful twister, square built and strong as an ox." The
proposed contest, in view, perhaps, of "the boys' " reputed
disregard of fair play, had no charms for the new clerk.
He would gladly have kept clear of it, but Offutt had
committed him so far that he could not refuse without in-
curring the charge of cowardice. Moreover, as the gang
had looted several stores of the village, they would in all
probability not have spared Offutt's for any length of
time after they had ceased to respect the clerk in charge.
Lincoln accordingly consented, stipulating, however, that
the match was to be a friendly one and fairly conducted.
All New Salem, with money, drinks, and portable
property of various kinds staked on the result, gathered at
the ring. The contestants were well matched. They strug-
gled and strained, for some time, with seemingly equal
strength and equal skill. They appear to have resembled
the mighty two who wrestled before Achilles, as
" with vigorous arms
They clasped each other, locked like rafters framed
By some wise builder for the lofty roof
Of a great mansion proof against the winds.
Then their backs creaked beneath the powerful strain
Of their strong hands ; the sweat ran down their limbs;
Large whelks upon their sides and shoulders rose,
Crimson with blood. Still eagerly they strove
For victory and the tripod. Yet in vain
Ulysses labored to supplant his foe,
And throw him to the ground, and equally
Did Ajax strive in vain, for with sheer strength
Ulysses foiled his efforts."
But here, we grieve to say, the parallel, such as it was,
ceased. When the Homer of the prairies sings the story
of the later combat, he will not, if truth as well as beauty
has a claim upon him, picture his champions leaving the
22 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
field, as did the Greek heroes, with gallantly divided
honors. Such a conclusion, indeed, appeared fitting to
Lincoln ; for, when neither he nor the man from the
Grove seemed able to prevail he said : —
" Now, Jack, let 's quit. You can't throw me, and I
can't throw you."
Armstrong, rendered desperate by his failure and urged
on by the clamor of his friends, instead of answering,
hurled himself upon Lincoln to get a foul hold. The
latter, enraged at the trick, seized the fellow by the throat
and, putting forth all his strength, " shook him," as the
chronicler tells us, "like a rag." Some of "the boys"
hurried to their leader's assistance, while others rushed
to Offutt and demanded the stakes. Above the tumult
could be heard Lincoln's voice ordering Offutt not to pay,
and declaring his willingness to fight all Clary's Grove,
if necessary. He had, in fact, backed against the store to
meet the gang's attack. At that moment, it might have
gone hard with him against such odds, had not the leading
citizen of the place interfered. Then Armstrong, having
recovered breath, expressed his admiration of so much
pluck and muscle, in this outburst : —
" Boys, Abe Lincoln is the best fellow that ever broke
into this settlement ! He shall be one of us."
And one of them, in a sense at least, Lincoln became.
His quondam opponent, like most men of his class, knew
no middle ground between enmity and affection. Ever
afterward, Armstrong, together with all that he had, was
at Lincoln's command, and the rest of " the Clary's Grove
boys " passed with their chief under the yoke.*^
How Lincoln exercised his influence over these rough
fellows is illustrated by an incident that occurred not long
after the fight. A stranger to the village was attacked
one day, in a spirit of frolic, by the gang, under Arm-
strong's leadership. Jack applied to him a string of epi-
thets, among which " coward " and " damned liar " were
the least objectionable. The victim of this onslaught,
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS 23
finding himself at a disadvantage, backed up to a wood-
pile, seized a stick, and struck Armstrong a blow that
felled him. Regaining his feet. Jack rushed forward to
punish the stranger, when Lincoln, who happened upon
the scene, persuaded " the boys " to make him arbitrator
of the difficulty.
"Well, Jack," he asked, proceeding in Socratic fashion,
"what did you say to the man?" Armstrong repeated
his language.
"Well, Jack," was the next question, "if you were a
stranger in a strange place, as this man is, and you were
called a damned liar, and so forth, what would you do ? "
" Whip him, by God ! " was the ready answer.
"Then this man," said. the arbitrator, "has done no
more to you than you would have done to him."
Even Armstrong felt the force of the golden rule when
so lucidly applied by the only man whose interference
he would not resent.
"Well, Abe," said he, taking the stranger by the
hand, " it 's all right." Then, in accordance with the
time-honored custom, for such occasions established, he
treated. *«
The pastimes of these wild young fellows, no less than
their quarrels, suffered a change under the pressure of
Lincoln's authority. He vetoed one of the gang's favor-
ite diversions, that of rolling persons who had incurred
their displeasure down a perilously steep hill in a hogs-
head. A form of amusement so rich in possibilities. Jack
and his playful savages were disinclined to relinquish. If
they were not to have their little fun, now and then, with
an unwilling victim, said they, what harm could there be
in rolling one that was willing ? Accordingly, an elderly
toper was hired by Armstrong to make the descent, for a
gallon of whiskey. Even this unprecedented concession
to decorum did not, strangely enough, satisfy the censor.
He insisted that the sport — brutal under any conditions
— must be stopped, and stopped it was.^" On another
24 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
occasion, when the spirit of deviltry animated an election
celebration, "the boys" enticed a fellow, endowed with
more pluck than sense, into a bet that he could ride
through their bonfire, on his pony. The animal trotted
nimbly enough up to the edge of the blaze, where he
balked and tossed his rider headforemost into the flames.
The affair had been observed by Lincoln, who, laughing
in spite of himself, ran to the fellow's assistance. " You
have carried this thing far enough," he said angrily to
Armstrong. The big rowdy, upon the arrival of his
"conscience," became so contrite that, not content with
leading the sufferer to a doctor to have the burns dressed,
he took him to his own cabin for the night, and sent him
home the next morning, after giving him a breakfast and
a sealskin cap.^^
The encounters of Offutt's brawny clerk with the exu-
berant young men of New Salem, in behalf of law and
order, were not always, even ostensibly, of a friendly
character. One day, while waiting upon some women in
the store, he was annoyed at the loud profanity of a fellow
who made a practice of lounging about the place. Lincoln,
leaning over the counter, asked him, as ladies were present,
not to use offensive language. The other retorted that he
would talk as he pleased, and intimated that the clerk was
not man enough to check him. His abuse continued until
the women had left the store. Then Lincoln, stepping
forward, said : —
" Well, if you must be whipped, I suppose I may as
well whip you as any other man."
The offender, nothing loath, followed his critic out of
doors, where ensued a contest, brief but decisive. Throw-
ing the fellow to the ground, Lincoln held him down
with one hand, while with the other he rubbed a bunch
of the smart- weed, which grew within reach, into the up-
turned face and eyes. The man of oaths bellowed with
pain, while he of the protests, having administered plenary
discipline, hastened for water and tenderly bathed the
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS 25
aching parts. These ministrations were accompanied, it
is surmised, by " quaint admonition," from which the suf-
ferer may be assumed to have profited. For he became,
as we are told, the life-long friend of the man who tutored
him thus violently in gentle manners.^^
During these early days of " wooling and pulling,"
to use one of Lincoln's phrases, his conquests over the
hearts of his antagonists were, in most cases, as complete
as his triumphs over their bodies. To defeat a man in such
a manner as to compel his lasting friendship, no less than
his respect, was apparently easy for this manly young
fellow. A singularly fine character had already, undevel-
oped though it was, manifested itself, here and there, in
traits which shone through his commonplace life like veins
of gold in a lump of quartz. To inquire how these quali-
ties came to enter into the make-up of a lad reared in the
fringe of the western wilderness, is as foreign to the
purpose of this study as would be an effort to account, in
an essay on the currency, for the presence of the precious
metal in a dirty clod. The social no less than the physical
marvel might draw us fruitlessly far afield. Suffice it to
say that Lincoln did, even at this time, have moral as
well as muscular strength, and that the ignorant, rough, or
vicious men among whom he grew to manhood felt — not
always consciously, perhaps — the sway of both. These
people, admirers of brute force though they were, would
assuredly not have fallen with such complete self-surrender
under the dominion of this powerful hand, had it not been
for the corresponding superiority of the head and the
heart by which it was controlled. A combination so strik-
ing had naturally led Lincoln's schoolmates to lay their
boyish differences before him ; and, as he advanced in years,
it caused his associates to appoint him umpire of their
sports, arbitrator of their disputes, referee of their un-
avoidable fights, and authority in general. The decisions,
let us add, were not only remarkable for their fairness, but
for the promptness, as well, with which they were enforced
26 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
by the judge. He did not hesitate, moreover, to act in this
capacity without waiting for an invitation from the per-
sons most concerned. Rushing between two fighting men,
he would fling them apart and insist upon settling their
quarrel for them amicably. Good feeling, indeed, pervaded
most, if not all, of young Lincoln's muscular activities.
Such advantages as he possessed over others were so
rarely abused, on the one hand, and were so commonly
employed with credit, on the other, that an account of his
prowess in the ring, which did not emphasize the facts,
would be misleading. ^^ To understand the Lincoln of this
period, one must bear in mind that side by side with his
pugilistic victories were these less palpable, but possibly
more important, triumphs of character. " It is excellent
to have a giant's strength," and excellent to use it as this
giant did.
To the end of his life, Mr. Lincoln evinced an almost
childish pride in his superior physique. As he stood,
during the Civil War, watching, from the Potomac front
of the Treasury, a forest on the Virginia hills fall before
the blows of a regiment of Maine lumbermen, he ex-
claimed : —
" I don't believe that there is a man in that regiment
with longer arms than mine, or who can swing an ax bet-
ter than I can. By jings! I should like to change works
with one of them." ^*
Indeed, the strength that had contributed to his early
distinction among the settlers of the backwoods was dis-
played to the more refined associates of his later career
frequently enough, though not always opportunely. When-
ever an ax happened to be within the President's reach,
his hand grasped it in some exhibition of dexterity or
endurance. Thus, after he had insisted on shaking hands,
one day, with a considerable number of the sick and
wounded soldiers in the City Point hospital, when those
who were with him expressed fears that he might be dis-
abled by the exertion, he is said to have answered, " The
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS 27
hardships of my early life gave me strong muscles." Then,
stepping through the open doorway, he took up a large,
heavy ax that lay near a log, and, chopping vigorously,
sent the chips flying in all directions. Presently he
stopped and, with arm extended at full length, held out
the ax horizontally by the extreme end of the handle.
" Strong men, who looked on," so runs the tale, " — men
accustomed to manual labor — could not hold the same
ax in that position for a moment." ^ At another time,
some officers and newspaper correspondents were returning
with him from the Navy Yard, where they had gone to
view the testing of certain new artillery inventions. As
they sat on the steamer discussing what they had seen,
the President caught sight of some axes that hung outside
of the cabin. Walking over to where the implements were,
he said : —
" You may talk about your Raphael repeaters and your
eleven-inch Dahlgrens, but I guess I understand that there
institution as well as anything else. There was a time
when I could hold out one of these things at arm's
length."
Whereupon, he took down one of the axes and held it
as has been described. Several of the party tried to imi-
tate him, but none succeeded. " When I was eighteen
years of age I could do this," said Mr. Lincoln, on a sim-
ilar occasion, to General Egbert L. Viele, " and I have
never seen the day since that I could not do it." This
was, in fact, one of his favorite feats. He seemed to enjoy
the discomfiture of those who made unsuccessful efforts
to equal it, no less than the admiration that it never failed
to excite in the beholders.^^
Mr. Lincoln's triumphs of physical strength led him
into the practice of almost unconsciously comparing him-
self, in this respect, with other men. The habit is well
illustrated in an incident related by Governor John
Wesley Hoyt, for many years secretary and manager of
the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. He escorted
28 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Lincoln, in the autumn of 1859, through the fair of the
association, at which the Illinois visitor had made the ad-
dress. They spent some time in one of the tents, watch-
ing the performance of a "strong man," who tossed about
huge iron balls, catching and rolling them on his arms and
back with remarkable brawn and agility. The exhibition
appeared to interest the orator of the day so intensely
that, at its conclusion, the manager introduced the athlete
to him. Mr. Lincoln stood looking down upon the man,
who was very short, as if wondering that one so much
smaller than he could be so much stronger. Then he said
abruptly, in his quaint fashion, " Why, I could lick salt
off the top of your hat." ^^ Nor was this the only occasion
on which he remarked smallness of stature.^^ His first
meeting with Stephen A. Douglas, in the Illinois legisla-
ture of 1834,^^ was memorable not, as might be expected,
for any impression which the " Little Giant's " genius
made upon him, but for his comment on the undersized
Vermonter as " the least man " that he had ever seen.®"
So, in Congress, during the winter of 1848, when an-
other small great man, Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia,
moved Mr. Lincoln to tears by " the very best speech of
an hour's length " that he had heard, he did not, in writ-
ing about it to his partner, Mr. Herndon, forget to describe
the speaker as " a little, slim, pale-faced, consumptive
man." ^^ The diminutive orator and his tall admirer met
seventeen years later, at the Hampton Roads Conference,
under strangely changed conditions — the one as an envoy
of the dying but still struggling Confederacy, the other
as the President of the Union. A momentous meeting,
this. Upon its issue depended peace or continued blood-
shed. Yet Mr. Lincoln was not so much engrossed in the
serious questions under consideration as to put aside en-
tirely his interest in Mr. Stephens's size. The little com-
missioner had protected his frail body against the mid-
winter cold with a profusion of overcoats and wraps, which,
after reaching the River Queen's warm cabin, he peeled
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS 29
off, layer by layer. As the wearer finally emerged, the
President is said to have remarked in an aside to the
Secretary of State, who was with him, " Seward, that is
the largest shucking for so small a nubbin that I ever
saw." ^^ This particular nubbin, meagre though it was,
the speaker held in high esteem ; still, here, as in the case
of Douglas, he appears to have had a complacent sense of
his own more ample proportions.^^
The sight of a tall man usually aroused in Mr. Lincoln
a desire to know whether he or the other had the more
inches. This hobby he sought to gratify, in season and
out, concern, as it might, a chance visitor from the
country, or a dignified Senator. Indeed, at what was, per-
haps, one of the most impressive moments of his life, when
face to face with some of the leading public men of the
day, the question, "Who is the taller?" seemed — if one
may judge solely by what happened — to be uppermost in
his mind. He had just responded in a few formal words
to the official notification of his first nomination for the
presidency, brought to his Springfield home by the com-
mittee of the Chicago Convention ; and he had started,
under the guidance of the chairman, the Hon. George
Ashmun, to make the rounds of the delegation, for per-
sonal introductions. The party included such men as
William M. Evarts, Carl Schurz, George S. Boutwell,
John Albion Andrew, Gideon Welles, Caleb B. Smith,
William D. Kelley, Francis P. Blair, Sr., David K. Cart-
ter, and Norman B. Judd ; but his eye rested upon the
most commanding figure of all, that of Edwin Dennison
Morgan, then Governor of New York and chairman of
the National Republican Executive Committee. Before
him Mr. Lincoln stopped first and, with a cordial greet-
ing, said : —
" Pray, Governor, how tall may you be ? "
" Nearly six feet three," answered the great man from
the Empire State.
An embarrassing silence that followed was relieved by
30 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Judge Kelley, the delegate from Pennsylvania, who was
somewhat of a poplar, himself. " And pray, Mr. Lincoln,"
said he, " how tall may you be ? "
"Six feet four," answered the candidate, taking the
benefit of a doubtful fraction. Whereupon the Judge, as
he relates, bowed and said : —
" Pennsylvania bows humbly before New York, but
still more humbly before Illinois. Mr. Lincoln, is it not
curious that I, who for the last twelve years have yearned
for a President to whom I might look up, should have
found one here in a State where so many people believe
they grow nothing but ' Little Giants ' ? " e^
Mr. Lincoln was not usually content, as in this instance,
to take the word of tall men as to their height. So im-
portant a matter, it appears, could be determined to his
satisfaction by actual measurement only. This, Congress-
man John Sherman learned to his surprise, as he paid his
respects to the President-elect, on the evening after Mr.
Lincoln's arrival in Washington. " When introduced to
him," says Mr. Sherman, " he took my hands in both of
his, drew himself up to his full height, and looking at me
steadily, said, ' You are John Sherman ! Well, I am taller
than you. Let 's measure.' Thereupon we stood back to
back, and some one present announced that he was two
inches taller than I. This was correct, for he was six feet
three and one half inches tall when he stood erect. This
singular introduction was not unusual with him, but if it
lacked dignity, it was an expression of friendliness and
so considered by him."^
Dignity ! The pomp and circumstance of the White
House itself did not abate Mr. Lincoln's fondness for
measuring. How deeply rooted this trait was, may be
gathered from the following typical scene, described by
one who happened to be present. On one of the President's
public audience days, a stalwart caller, evidently from the
rural West, approached Mr. Lincoln awkwardly and man-
aged to explain that, being on a visit to the Capital, he
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS 31
desired before leaving to see the President, and to have
the honor of shaking hands with him. Mr. Lincoln, as he
smilingly complied, surveyed the big man from head to
foot and said, in his playful way : —
" I rather think you have a little the advantage of me
in height. You are a taller man than I am."
" I guess not, Mr. President," replied the visitor ; " the
advantage cannot be on my side."
" Yes, it is," was the rejoinder. " I have a pretty good
eye for distances, and I think I can't be mistaken in the
fact of the advantage being slightly with you. I measure
six feet three and a half inches in my stockings, and you
go, I think, a little beyond that."
As the other still politely demurred, Mr. Lincoln said,
*' It is very easily tested." Rising from his chair, he placed
a book edgewise against the wall, just higher than his head.
Then, turning to his visitor, he bade him, " Come under."
This the ofranger hesitated to do, his countenance the while
wearing a bewildered yet half-smiling expression that, we
are told, was comical to see.
" Come under, I say," repeated the President in a more
peremptory tone, and the visitor slowly complied. When
Mr. Lincoln, in his turn, stepped under the book, he was
found to have fallen a trifle short of the other's measure-
ment.
" There," said he, " it is as I told you. I knew I could n't
be mistaken. I rarely fail in taking a man's true altitude
by the eye."
" Yes, but Mr. President," said the man, to the merri-
ment of the company, " you have slippers on and I boots,
and that makes a difference."
" Not enough to amount to anything in this reckoning,"
was the reply. " You ought at least to be satisfied, my
honest friend, with the proof given that you actually stand
higher to-day than your President." ^
Even more averse to Mr. Lincoln's yard-stick than this
modest citizen was the senior Senator from Massachusetts.
32 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
" Sumner," said the President, " declined to stand up with
me, back to back, to see which was the taller man, and
made a fine speech about this being the time for uniting
our fronts against the enemy and not our backs. But I
guess he was afraid to measure, though he is a good piece
of a man. I have never had much to do with Bishops
where I live ; but, do you know, Sumner is my idea of a
Bishop." «^
A palpable hit, this, when we recall the imposing pre-
sence and the massive frame of the cultured Bostonian, who,
after towering for years above his contemporaries, was evi-
dently not willing to surrender, in an idle moment, the
physical preeminence in which he, too, took not a little
pride.*^ Perhaps his eye had become as practiced " in
taking a man's true altitude," as the President's. If so, it
gave warning that when the loosely jointed figure before
him unfolded to its full height,^^ "Old Abe " would, in one
respect at least, prove to be Charles Sumner's superior.
The scholarly statesman from the East, no less than
the man of the people from the West, owed something of
that subtle, indefinable force which issued in mastery over
their fellows, to mere physique. However slight this debt
may have been, they did not fail to recognize it — each in
his characteristic way. Sumner, whether he gave to the
world an oration with carefully studied pose and gesture,
or privately employed his powers of persuasion in further-
ing one of the lofty aims of his career, was ever conscious
of the advantage that lay in his commanding figure, and
he improved it to the utmost. Lincoln, rarely, if ever, self-
conscious, made no such application of his strength and
stature ; but the exhibitions of them that he scattered
through his life abundantly manifest his half -serious, half-
joking sense of their importance. This appreciation of a
superiority, purely physical, by leaders so unlike in tem-
perament and training, is sufficient to warrant the attention
that has been given here to a seemingly unessential matter.
Moreover, it is no mere coincidence that the three most
A SAMSON OF THE BACKWOODS 3^
forceful personalities that have directed the fortunes of the
American people from the President's chair were embodied
in frames of uncommon size and vigor. Their habits of
command, confirmed early in life by ability to enforce their
wishes, armed them with the irresistible powers of control
by means of which they triumphed in great crises of our
nation's history. The heaviest demands of this nature
were, beyond a question, laid upon Abraham Lincoln, and
he, consistently enough, was, of all the Presidents, the
tallest and sturdiest.
CHAPTER II
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS
Lincoln's quickly acquired ascendancy, such as it was,
over the people of New Salem, received formal confir-
mation almost as speedily. In less than ten months
from that lazy summer day on which, as he himself de-
scribed it, the young stranger had lodged in the place like
a piece of floating driftwood, he was singled out by his
neighbors for the choicest honor then within their gift —
a military command. The Black Hawk War, narrowly
averted during the preceding year, had broken out in the
spring of 1832, spreading panic along the Illinois frontier.
Rock River valley in the northern part of the State, once
the hunting-ground of the united Sac and Fox Indians,
was overrun by a band of their warriors under the famous
old leader for whom history has named the struggle
that ensued. He had, the previous summer, in accordance
with existing treaties, ceded the land to the government,
and had removed with his people beyond the Mississippi.
But Black Hawk's inveterate hatred of the Americans,
engendered by wrongs not altogether imaginary, and kept
alive, since the war of 1812, by the Englishmen in Canada,
had aroused him to one final raid for the recovery of his
home. Having recrossed the river at the head of his so-
called British band, — for most of the Sac and Fox nations
were in favor of peace, — he held the lives and property
of the settlers in his hands. At this juncture. Governor
Reynolds called for volunteers to drive the Indians back
over the Mississippi. Among the first to respond was a
company from New Salem that included Abraham Lin-
coln and many of his Clary's Grove friends.
o//!2^^^>VC
^r'W',
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 35
On their way to the rendezvous at Beardstown, the
volunteers halted to elect a captain. The office was
sought by two candidates, Abraham Lincoln and William
Kirkpatrick. The latter, as the owner of a sawmill and
as a person of standing in the community, considered the
honor to be his due, particularly as he who disputed it
with him was a newcomer and a mere hired man. Lincoln
had, in fact, upon his arrival in the neighborhood, done
an odd job or two in Kirkpatrick's mill. To the proprie-
tor's unfair treatment of him, on that occasion, may be
ascribed the workman's keen desire to defeat him in a
public contest. Upon hiring Lincoln, Kirkpatrick had
promised to buy for him a hook with which to move some
heavy logs ; but finding that by reason of the young man's
strength and skill the work was done as well with a
common hand-spike, he had agreed, at Lincoln's sugges-
tion, to give him the two dollars that the hook would have
cost. When pay-day arrived, Kirkpatrick had refused to
keep his promise. The trick rankled in Lincoln's mem-
ory. As soon as he heard of the mill-owner's ambition for
military rank he said to his friend Green : —
" Bill, I believe I can now make Kirkpatrick pay that
two dollars he owes me on the cant-hook. I '11 run against
him for captain."
The election that followed was characteristic in its sim-
plicity. The candidates stood apart ; the voters, together.
At a signal, the latter stepped over to the man whom they
severally preferred. Three out of every four of them went
promptly to Lincoln.^ Whereupon the minority, who
stood with his competitor, left their candidate one by one
to join the successful party. This continued until Kirk-
patrick stood almost alone. His punishment had been
severe. " Damn him," muttered Lincoln to his friend,
" I 've beat him. He used me badly in our settlement
for my toil." The more audible impromptu speech in
which the new Captain thanked his company was probably
expressed in language less unparliamentary. It has not
^6 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
been preserved, but a minute of the speaker's gratifica-
tion has. Recalling the event, in that frank little third-
person autobiography of 1860, Mr. Lincoln wrote : —
" He says he has not since had any success in life which
gave him so much satisfaction."
And with reason, for this election meant far more to
him than the humbling of an influential man who had
wronged him. It was the first formal public recognition
of his ability to lead.^
How creditably the young officer conducted himself
may be determined only after an inspection of the mate-
rial at his command. A motley company it was, every man
of it equipped after his own fashion, and intent upon
maintaining, in behavior as well as in appearance, the
frontiersman's cherished individuality. Having joined his
neighbors, on equal terms, for an expedition against the
Indians, he became restive under discipline whenever, in
his good judgment, it did not bear directly upon the
affair in hand. This prejudice against subordination he
had, it is true, overcome sufficiently to participate, on the
democratic plan described, in the choice of a captain ;
but with his vote probably went the private reservation to
obey that officer or not as occasion might suggest. Thus
far, the men of Lincoln's company differed from the rest
of Governor Reynolds's hastily gathered army in no im-
portant particular. Beyond this, however, lay a marked
variation in degree, if not in kind. The volunteers from
New Salem savored strongly of Clary's Grove. Un-
trained, disorderly, even mutinous, they distanced the
other companies in their violation of rules, and soon won
the distinction of being a "hard set of men." Their
Captain once recalled that his first order to one of them
was answered by, " Go to the devil, sir ! " The officer
hastened to the manual instead, so that no time might be
lost in making soldiers out of his unpromising recruits.
The task of compelling obedience from such men,
difficult under the best of conditions, must have taxed
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 37
to their utmost the faculties of a captain no less deficient
than they in military training. How Lincoln pieced out
his ignorance and saved the of&ciai dignity from disaster
is illustrated by the droll anecdotes with which he was ac-
customed, some years later, in the post-office of the House,
to amuse his fellow Congressmen. One of these stories
dealt with his first attempt to drill the awkward squad.^
They were marching with a front of about twenty men
across a field, when it became necessary to pass through a
narrow gateway. " I could not for the life of me," said he,
" remember the proper word of command for getting my
company endwise so that it could get through the gate.
So, as we came near the gate, I shouted, ' This company
is dismissed for two minutes, when it will fall in again
on the other side of the gate!' " ^ It was not so easy, be
it said, for Lincoln to gloss over all his shortcomings. He
failed, in one instance at least, to understand that he who
would command must first learn to obey. Hence, shortly
after his company had joined the main body of the army,
we find him in disgrace for disobedience of a general
order. This decree, issued while the horses were making
a precarious crossing over the Henderson River, prohib-
ited, for obvious reasons, the discharge of firearms within
fifty paces of the camp limits. Deliberately ignoring the
order, our Captain fired his pistol within ten steps of the
camp. He was promptly deprived of his sword, and was
placed under arrest for the day.^
About a week later, Lincoln was again subjected to
punishment, but this time for the misdeeds of his men.
They had, upon their arrival near the seat of war, been
received into the United States service. The military
prestige of the nation appears, however, to have restrained
their unruly spirits no more than had that of the state.
When the army was about to march in search of the
Indians, one bright May morning, Captain Lincoln di-
rected the orderly sergeant to parade his company. They
failed to respond to the officer's calls, and the sounds that
38 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
issued from beneath some of the blankets gave intimation
of what soon proved to be the terrible truth. These
valiant men had, during the night, made a sortie, on their
ovrn account, upon an enemy that, more powerful than
the Sacs or the Foxes, had laid them low. The warriors
from New Salem were dead — drunk. Livestigation re-
vealed that they had broken into the officers' stores,
and had stolen enough liquor to render marching, a few
hours later, an unreasonable proposition. Indeed, all the
efforts of their mortified commander, who of course had
been kept in ignorance of the spree, failed to maintain
them on their feet long enough to start with the other
troops. Some time after the army had marched, he man-
aged to set his besotted ranks in motion ; but as stragglers
dropped here and there along the road, to finish their
interrupted slumbers, the company did not overtake the
main body before nightfall. Then Captain Lincoln was
again placed under arrest, with orders to carry for two
days — oh, cutting mockery ! — a wooden sword." The
punishment was in keeping with the opera bouffe element
that runs through the incident. Yet, there is no reason
for assuming that the young officer, keen of humor though
he was, found aught in the affair, at the time, but chagrin.
This failure to maintain control over his men, together
with his own violation of discipline, a few days before,
must have made clear to him that he had now to face
entirely new problems in leadership.
New problems may sometimes be solved in old ways.
So must have thought this captain of volunteers, for he
sought to establish his military authority not by apply-
ing the unfamiliar regulations in the articles of war, but
by employing the means that had already stood him in
such good stead. Courage, skill, and strength had secured
to him at home a certain ascendancy over these rough
fellows. Why not, he may have asked himself, hold that
ascendancy in camp by further exhibitions of these qual-
ities ? Opportunities were plentiful enough in the sports
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 39
with which the soldiers tried to relieve the hardships of
the campaign, and in which Lincoln appears, as was his
wont, to have excelled them all. This was especially so
in wrestling. With a handkerchief knotted around his
waist, he would jump into the ring, on notice however
short, to uphold the reputation of his company. The vol-
unteers from New Salem believed that no man in the
army could throw their Captain, a faith which he shared,
and in which he took not a little pride. Indeed, long after
his ambitions had undergone a change, he was fond of
recalling these triumphs. They had a prominent place
among the reminiscences with which he entertained his
congressional friends. Telling them once about a cham-
pion of the southern Illinois companies who challenged
him, Mr. Lincoln said : —
" He was at least two inches taller than I was, and
somewhat heavier, but I reckoned that I was the most
wiry, and soon after I had tackled him I gave him a hug,
lifted him off the ground, and threw him flat on his back.
That settled his hash." ^
Lincoln continued to settle the hashes dished up for
him by his enthusiastic followers, until a certain Dow
Thompson, not otherwise known to fame, was pitted
against him. On the day appointed, the respective sup-
porters of the men, having wagered their money and val-
uables upon the result, formed a ring for the contest.
Lincoln's confidence in his ability to throw Thompson
underwent a change after the first few passes. Turning
to his friends, he said : —
" This is the most powerful man I ever had hold of.
He will throw me and you will lose your all, unless I act
on the defensive."
The New Salem champion appeared, in fact, to be
outclassed. He managed to keep his feet for some time,
but he was at last fairly thrown. Two falls out of three
were to decide the match, so the wrestlers tried another
bout. The second differed somewhat from the first. Lin-
40 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
coin fell heavily, pulling Thompson to the ground with
him. As both went down, this looked like a " dog-fall,"
and it was so declared by Lincoln's friends. The adher-
ents of Thompson, on the other hand, as warmly claimed it
to be' a fair fall. A general fight seemed imminent, but
before the angry partisans could come to blows, Lincoln,
who had regained his feet, rushed between them, and said
to his supporters : —
" Boys, give up your bets ; if he has not thrown me
fairly, he could."
This magnanimous course put an end to the quarrel,
while it left Lincoln's reputation as a wrestler not seri-
ously impaired. For his men, though they paid their
bets in obedience to his commands, refused to concede
that he had been defeated, or that any athlete in the army
was his match.^
The pride of Lincoln's troopers in their Captain went
far toward reconciling them to his authority. He was,
in fact, the only officer whom they learned to obey. More-
over, "they were fighting men," as one historian says,
" and but for his personal authority would have kept the
camp in a perpetual uproar." Even Lincoln's control was,
before he got through with them, put to a severe strain, —
the severest that can come to an officer, be he recruit or
veteran, — open mutiny. This is how it happened. After
the disgraceful rout known as " Stillman's defeat," Gov-
ernor Reynolds and his army started in hot pursuit of
the Indians. The savages, as they fled, left ghastly traces
of their presence, here and there, in sacked homes and
murdered people ; but, applying their skill in woodcraft,
they confused their trail so well that their pursuers
sought them, for some time, in vain. The volunteers,
unaccustomed to the consequent privations, became exas-
perated against the enemy and unruly toward their officers.
During one of these fruitless marches, a weary and hun-
gry old Indian wandered into camp. He professed to be
a friend of the whites, and showed a safe-conduct signed
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 41
by General Cass. This declared him to have done good
service and to be faithful to the government. Disregard-
ing the pass, some of the Sangamon volunteers, actuated
by their recently inflamed hatred of the red man, and
recalling, no doubt, the frontiersman's maxim, that the
only good Indian is the dead Indian, rushed upon the re-
fugee, determined to kill him. At this juncture. Captain
Lincoln, stepping between them and their victim, knocked
up the leveled muskets.
" Men," said he, his voice ringing above their shouts,
" this must not be done. He must not be shot and killed
by us."
For a moment it seemed as if the speaker, as well as
the creature that crouched behind him, was in danger.
Then the courage and resolution in the young officer's
attitude gained the mastery. Beneath his fixed gaze the
mutinous group sullenly fell back with murmurs of dis-
appointment and vengeance.
" This is cowardly on your part, Lincoln ! " cried one
of them.
" If any man thinks I am a coward, let him test it,"
was the reply.
" You are larger and heavier=than we are," said another.
" This you can guard against. Choose your weapons,'*
rejoined Lincoln.
To this the mutineers made no answer. They had never
before seen him so aroused. There was nothing left for
them but submission. One by one they slunk away, and
left the Indian in peace. How imminent had been his
danger may be inferred from the fact that one of his race,
aged and blind, who threw himself upon the mercy of
another company, a few weeks later, was murdered by the
enraged soldiers. To oppose such men, be it said, in the
height of their frenzy, was beyond the ability of most
militia officers. Captain Lincoln, however, knew the crowd
with which he had to deal. It was only by sinking the
officer and asserting the man that he could have hoped for
42 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
a real conquest. He miglit, it is true, have enforced obedi-
ence by recourse to military discipline ; but tbe influence
over this rough citizen-soldiery, which he so highly prized,
would probably have been lost to him forever. As it was,
neither his courage nor his authority was again questioned ;
for, as he himself afterwards declared, he had, at the risk
of his life, finally established both.^
The force of character manifested in these incidents
is sufficient to account for the inexperienced militia cap-
tain's sway over men whom no one else could handle ; yet
the respect and even the affection with which, before the
close of the campaign, his conduct inspired them, con-
tributed somewhat, no doubt, toward this result. Tactfully
taking the middle ground between that of the commander
and the comrade, he did not let " the boys " forget that he
was their superior, although none of them entered more
keenly than he into their pleasures or their troubles.
Here was a captain of volunteers, indeed ! When the
duties of the day had been disposed of, he was always
ready to join the men in their pastimes ; when fatigues or
hunger discouraged them, — for the marching was hard
and the commissary too often missing, — he gathered them
at night about the camp-fire, to turn their faultfinding into
laughter over his inexhaustible flow of jests and stories ;
finally, when injustice threatened their welfare, he became
so watchful of their comfort, so tenacious of their rights,
that, in the language of one of the men, he "attached
officers and rank to him, as with hooks of steel." The
volunteers, be it known, had for some time suffered under
the discriminations in favor of the regular troops, that
inevitably arise from the employment of the two branches
in the same service. The militia had, indeed, been accepted
by the government; but it was a State body, under State
control, none the less, and it accordingly did not escape
the customary prejudice. Abuses continued, until Captain
Lincoln, one day, received an order that appeared to be
improper. He obeyed it, but, improving the opportunity,
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 43
went directly to the regular officer, who had issued it, and
protested against the injustice to which his men had been
subjected. Lincoln is said to have stated the case in good,
set terms, concluding with : —
" Sir, you forget that we are not under the rules and
regulations of the War Department at Washington ; are
only volunteers under the orders and regulations of
Illinois. Keep in your own sphere and there will be no
difficulty, but resistance will hereafter be made to your
unjust orders. And, further, my men must be equal in all
particulars — in rations, arms, camps, and so forth — to
the regular army."
This demand was effectual. The wisdom, if not the jus-
tice, of acceding to it had been made clear to the regu-
lar officers ; and they discontinued, from that time, their
unfair treatment of the volunteers. As for the militiamen
themselves, they, naturally enough, regarded him who had
thus championed their cause, with devotion.^"
The victory over the epaulets at headquarters was not
less satisfactory than had been our Captain's little private
campaign for the mastery of his own men. Their surrender
to him, at discretion, was — as we now view it — of far
deeper significance than the subsequent capture of Black
Hawk and all his savages. The so-called war would, in
fact, like the other struggles of its class, be well-nigh
forgotten to-day, if it were not for the few participants
who became eminent." And certainly, to none of these
was the brief experience so momentous as to the raw
youth whose task of leading seventy recruits was destined
to be followed, within a few decades, by the supreme com-
mand, at one time, of over a million soldiers.
Lincoln's apprenticeship to discipline had, it should be
added, in those early days, a two-fold character. When
the volunteers, after five weeks of service, demanded their
discharge, he was mustered out with his company.^ As
the new levies had then not yet arrived at the seat of war,
Governor Reynolds appealed to the patriotism of the dis-
44 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
banded troops for a regiment of volunteers that would, in
the interim, protect the frontier. Among those who reen-
listed was the ex-captain from the Sangamon. He served
then, and during a still later enlistment, as a private in
an Independent Spy Company that was called upon to
supply couriers, scouts, and skirmishers. Of his conduct
in the difficult, and presumably dangerous, duties that
were assigned to him, no record has been preserved, save in
the few random recollections of his fellow soldiers. One
of them recalls that whenever, on the march, scouts were
to be sent out to examine a covert, in which an ambush
might be concealed, Lincoln was the first man selected.
Moreover, many of those who rode forward with him are
said to have habitually found an excuse, as they neared
the place, for dismounting to adjust their girths or their
saddles, but "Lincoln's saddle," it is dryly added, "was
always in perfect order." ^^ He had probably learned, by
this unusual inversion of military rank, how to receive
orders as well as he had mastered the art of giving them.
At all events, he was a faithful soldier to the end. For,
when he was finally mustered out of service, a few weeks
before the close of the war, it was not, as had been the
case with so many of the volunteers, at his own wish, but
in the general disbandment necessitated by the lack of
provisions. Thus ingloriously terminated Abraham Lin-
coln's less than three months of soldiering, during which,
as it happened, he caught sight of no enemy and took
part in no battle. If this vexed the volunteer, he may
have reflected, as he made his way back to New Salem,
that it was, at least, as creditable to his courage to have
saved an Indian as to have killed one. He had, moreover,
engaged in sundry struggles with those who ranked above
and those who ranked below him ; he had tasted the
sweets of office, and had felt its responsibilities ; he had,
in short, learned many new lessons in the rudiments of
leadership. The campaign, it is true, as he himself once
facetiously said, does not afford material for writing him
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 45,
" into a military hero " ; yet the part that he had played
in it gave indications, at least, of the stuff out of which
heroes, military and otherwise, are sometimes developed.
The horizon of Lincoln's ambition had, even before
the Black Hawk War, distinctly widened. To extend
throughout the county the influence that he had attained
over the village became, within a few months after he had
taken his place behind Offutt's counter, one of his aspi-
rations. In order to gratify it by the readiest means,
he went, as the phrase goes, into politics. The road to pub-
lic preferment did not then, as now, in Illinois, follow
the devious windings of caucuses and conventions." A
straight course lay before candidates for elective offices,
and as many as pleased entered the race. Each compet-
itor, having merely announced that he intended to run,
started off after his own fashion and made his way as best
he could towards the winning post. These heats were not
without rude jostlings — even collisions, for the runners
were many and the posts few. But what would you have,
when
" The grave, the gay, the fop ling, and the dunce,
Start up (God bless us !) statesmen all at once."
This array of all the talents, moreover, usually scrambled
for the same places — seats in the legislature. Sublimely
ignorant of existing laws many of them were, to be sure,
but this ignorance, as it left the prospective law-maker
somewhat untrammeled in legislating according to the
wants of his constituency, was not invariably regarded as
a disability. Hence, the announcement one morning that
the young clerk at the grocery store had become a candi-
date for the legislature was not so absurd, in the spring
of 1832, as it might be to-day. Lincoln had, in fact, been
" encouraged by his great popularity among his immedi-
ate neighbors" — so read the autobiographical notes — to
offer himself as a representative of the people in the Gen-
eral Assembly.
The election was to take place late in the summer,
46 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
but lie had issued at onoe, in accordance with custom,
an " address " to the voters of Sangamon County. This
was his first formal application to the public for political
power. As such, the document, particularly its conclud-
ing paragraph, is of interest here.
" Every man," he wrote, " is said to have his peculiar
ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one,
that I have no other so great as that of being truly es-
teemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy
of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying
this ambition is yet to be developed. I am young, and
unknown to many of you. I was born, and have ever
remained, in the most humble walks of life. I have no
wealthy or popular relations or friends to recommend me.
My case is thrown exclusively upon the independent voters
of the county ; and, if elected, they will have conferred a
favor upon me, for which I shall be unremitting in my
labors to compensate. But, if the good people, in their
wisdom, shall see fit to keep me in the background, I
have been too familiar with disappointments to be very
much chagrined." ^^
How sincere was the writer's desire to be " truly es-
teemed " had been manifested, a few weeks later, at the
outbreak of the war. Abandoning his canvass, before it
was well begun, he had in response to the first call, as we
have seen, marched off, with some of his neighbors, to the
defence of the State.
The volunteer, upon his discharge, returned to New
Salem with the politician's dearest attribute — a record,
such as it was, of military service. That our ex-captain
did not, then or thereafter, so far as is known, parade his
sword for votes should be mentioned to his credit. This
forbearance was especially noteworthy in the case of
Lincoln's first canvass, which had been so interrupted by
that very service as to leave the candidate, after his return
from the front, but ten days for his contest. It was con-
ducted, nevertheless, manfully on its merits. Seizing the
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 47
few opportunities still open to him, he made little speeches
in which, besides approving of certain popular local ideas,
he declared himself to be "a Clay man," and in favor
of Henry Clay's so-called "American system." Such
national politics doomed his already heavily handicapped
canvass ; for the county, as well as the state and the coun-
try, was at that time overwhelmingly devoted to the policy
of President Jackson. The Democratic leader's partisans,
moreover, growing intolerant in their might, had adopted
his proscriptive methods toward political enemies, who
were to be " whipped out of office like dogs out of a meat
house." ^* Yet this penniless and obscure young man,
eager for office as he was, had the courage and self-reli-
ance — let us say nothing of conscience — to take his first
plunge into politics in accordance with his convictions and
against the tide on which the victorious spoilsmen were
carrying all before them. He went down, on election day,
with the other Clay men, suffering his first and only de-
feat by a direct vote of the people. A glance, however,
at the poll-book, reveals a crumb of comfort larger than
usually falls to the lot of unsuccessful candidates. Of the
twelve men who ran for the legislature, four were elected,
and Lincoln, running 158 votes behind his lowest suc-
cessful competitor, stood eighth on the list. Somewhat
different was the order in Lincoln's home, the precinct
of New Salem. There, of the 300 voters who balloted for
representatives, 277 voted for him and but 23 against
him.^' This almost unanimous support of his neighbors
has been explained by Judge Stephen T. Logan, one of
the rising young men of that day.
" The Democrats of New Salem," said he, " worked
for Lincoln out of their personal regard for him. ThaA
was the general understanding of the matter here at the
time. In this he made no concession of principle what-
ever. He was as stiff as a man could be in his Whig
doctrines. They did this for him simply because he was
popular — because he was Lincoln."
48 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
The strengtli of this hold upon the people may be
appreciated to its fullest extent only when we remember
that in the national election, a few weeks later, these same
voters gave General Jackson a majority of 115 over Mr.
Clay. Under such conditions, Lincoln's defeat was not
without honor. Indeed, so extraordinary a local triumph
at once established his standing among the Warwicks
of the county, as a man to be reckoned with thencefor-
ward.
During the two years following, Lincoln strove to pre-
pare himself for the political career opened to him by
his brilliant, if unsuccessful, start. The canvass had
made clear to the candidate that he was at a disadvantage
in two particulars, at least. The people of the county at
large did not know him well enough, and — what may
have been less evident to others, though it was even more
deeply impressed upon him — he did not know enough to
cope, on an equal footing, with some of the leaders whom
he had encountered. The first of these deficiencies was
largely overcome, strange as it may seem, through the
kindness of a Democratic officer, the Surveyor of Sanga-
mon County. This follower of Jackson, John Calhoun by
name, so far forgot his "whole-hog" obligations as to
admire the new " Clay man." He even went farther in
his treason. Having persuaded Lincoln to study the rudi-
ments of surveying,^* he appointed him his deputy, and
kept him so busy — for speculation in land was at its
height — that the young man had ample opportunity not
only to make many new acquaintances, but to win their
confidence as well. The second deficiency was not so
easily disposed of, though Lincoln's efforts to that end
were untiring. Whether, as happened during this period,
he picked up a living by doing odd jobs, keeping store,
carrying letters, or laying out town lots, he invariably
found time for the study of such newspapers, law books,
and odd volumes as came within his reach.^^ Conse-
quently when, during the summer of 1834, he again
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 49
presented himself as a candidate for the legislature, he
made, in this respect also, a better showing. Still, the
homely, ill-clad young fellow must, in appearance at least,
have fallen short of even Sangamon standards, simple as
they were. " He wore," said a friend who had accompa-
nied him in the preceding canvass, " a mixed jeans coat,
clawhammer style, short in the sleeves, and bobtail — in
fact it was so short in the tail he could not sit on it ;
flax and tow-linen pantaloons, and a straw hat. I think
he wore a vest, but do not remember how it looked. He
wore pot-metal boots." ^" This wardrobe had evidently
not been greatly improved when Lincoln made his second
appeal for the suffrages of the people, inasmuch as a cer-
tain doctor, looking him over contemptuously while he
was on one of his electioneering tours, asked : —
" Can't the party raise any better material than that? "
" Go to-morrow and hear all before you pronounce
judgment," said a common friend, who after the meeting
on the following day inquired : —
" Doctor, what say you now? "
" Why, sir," was the answer, " he is a perfect take-in. He
knew more than all of the other candidates put together." ^^
On election day Lincoln was found to have been chosen
by a flattering plurality. He stood second on the list of
four Assemblymen, and but fourteen votes below the first
man.^^ This success was repeated in 1836, when he led
the poll ; in 1838, after he had become a lawyer, with his
home at Springfield ; and in 1840, when he made what,
by his own choice, proved to be his last run for the office.
The five canvasses themselves did not differ essentially
from those conducted at the time by other young poli-
ticians of the neighborhood. In one respect, however,
Lincoln appears to have made his contests distinctive.
They afforded occasions, which he did not neglect, for the
exercise of his aggressive faculties. Indeed, careful scru-
tiny of the few incidents that have here and there been
chronicled reveals how the vein of mastery, which we
50 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
have traced to this point, continued unbroken through
the entire decade.
Lincoln's first canvass — in fact, his first appearance
on the stump — was attended by a little scene that appro-
priately introduced the subduer of Clary's Grove to a
community fully as capable of appreciating grit and
muscle. A crowd of voters that had collected at Papps-
ville, getting full of whiskey and enthusiasm, began a
general fight. Among those who were roughly handled
was a follower of the New Salem candidate. Jumping
from the platform, Lincoln rushed through the melee,
seized his friend's assailant as if to make him " walk
Spanish," tossed him off ten feet or so, resumed his place
on the stand, and calmly began his little speech. This
prelude, it is safe to say, did not lessen the warmth of his
welcome from an audience akin to " the bare-footed boys,"
" the huge-pawed boys," or " the butcher-knife boys," who,
in the elections of those days, so often held the balance
of power.^^
During the canvass of four years later, when Lincoln
spoke at Mechanicsburg, he "jumped in and saw fair
play " — so a bystander relates — for another friend who
was getting the worst of it in a similar fight.^* By that
time, however, he had learned to use his tongue and his
pen no less effectually than his hands in repelling an
attack. Suiting the weapon to the occasion, he mani-
fested, in those primitive electioneering encounters for the
Assembly, something of the power and adroitness that
in mature years distinguished his more ambitious efforts.
None of the candidate's later triumphs excelled, in this
respect, his victory, during the contest, over George For-
quer, a politician of prominence and uncommon ability.
A lawyer by profession, his words, as a speaker and as a
writer, were weighted with the prestige which naturally
attaches to one who had been member of the Assembly,
Secretary of State, Attorney-General, and State Senator.
He had recently deserted the Whig Party to join the
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 51
Jackson Democrats, a defection which the administration
had rewarded with the lucrative place of Register of the
Land Office at Springfield. This worthy might have sat
for Hosea Biglow's portrait of Gineral C. : —
" a dreffle smart man :
He 's ben on all sides that give places or pelf ;
But consistency still wnz a part of his plan, —
He 's ben true to 07ie party, — an' thet is himself."
Forquer's pretentious new house, from which projected
a lightning-rod, — the only one in the county, — had been
pointed out to Lincoln as he rode into town, one evening,
with a few of his friends. They were unable to answer
the young man's eager questions about the " new-fangled "
rod. It was there to keep off the lightning. More than
that none of them could say.^^ On the following day, in
the debate which took place at the court-house, between
the candidates for office, Lincoln made a good impression.
In fact, his success was so marked that, as the audience
was dispersing, the Democrats deemed it necessary to put
forward one of their strong men to reply. This task was
committed to Forquer, who, as he was not a candidate, had
taken no part in the discussion. He responded to the call,
nevertheless, with the vigor and skill of a practiced de-
bater. Not content with what could be said in answer to
Lincoln's arguments, the speaker sought to overwhelm
the young man beneath a flood of personal abuse and ridi-
cule. The onslaught was so severe that the candidate's
friends trembled for their favorite. What could he say in
rejoinder ? Lincoln, evidently laboring under great excite-
ment, stood a few paces distant, intently eyeing the speaker.
At the conclusion of the attack, he remounted the stand
to reply.
" I have heard him often since," writes his friend
Joshua F. Speed, who was present, " in the courts and
before the people, but never saw him appear and acquit
himself so well as upon that occasion. His reply to For-
quer was characterized by great dignity and force."
52 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
This praise was merited, if we may judge from the con-
clusion, which alone has been preserved.
"Mr. Forquer," said Lincoln, "commenced his speech
by announcing that the young man would have to be taken
down. It is for you, fellow citizens, not for me to say
whether I am up or down. The gentleman has seen fit to
allude to my being a young man ; but he forgets that I
am older in years than in the tricks and trades of politi-
cians. I desire to live, and I desire place and distinction ;
but I would rather die now than, like the gentleman, live
to see the day that I would change my politics for an
office worth three thousand dollars a year, and then feel
compelled to erect a lightning-rod to protect a guilty con-
science from an offended God." ^®
Our Register and his rod had indeed drawn the light-
ning. The hit was a palpable one. It left the young
candidate master of the field, from which his antagonist
retired with a hurt that never entirely healed. When
Forquer thereafter spoke in public meetings, his oppo-
nents usually found occasion to remind his audiences that
he was the turncoat whom Abe Lincoln had accused of
erecting a lightning-rod " to protect a guilty conscience
from an offended God."^^
The controversy with Forquer was typical of a can-
vass noted for its bitterness. Personal conflicts, not only
between excited partisans, but even between the candidates
themselves, disgraced the contest. In such a struggle,
Lincoln, of course, could not hope to escape slander any
more than he had avoided abuse. Vague charges against
him and one of his colleagues were circulated by Colonel
Robert Allen, a Democratic politician, who, for lack of
argument, resorted to this shift for prejudicing the Whig
cause. Lincoln's method of meeting the attack was in
striking contrast with the violence to which similar acts,
in the rough-and-tumble canvass of that year, gave rise.
He sent Allen this letter, which is worthy of a place here,
in full: —
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 53
New Salem, June 21, 1836.
Dear Colonel, — I am told that during my absence
last week you passed through the place and stated publicly
that you were in possession of a fact or facts which, if
known to the public, would entirely destroy the prospects
of N, W. Edwards and myself at the ensuing election ;
but that through favor to us you would forbear to divulge
them. No one has needed favors more than I, and, gen-
erally, few have been less unwilling to accept them ; but
in this case favor to me would be injustice to the public,
and therefore I must beg your pardon for declining it.
That I once had the confidence of the people of Sangamon
County is sufficiently evident ; and if I have done any-
thing, either by design or misadventure, which if known
would subject me to a forfeiture of that confidence, he
that knows of that thing and conceals it is a traitor to his
country's interest.
I find myself wholly unable to form any conjecture
of what fact or facts, real or supposed, you spoke ; but
my opinion of your veracity will not permit me for a
moment to doubt that you at least believed what you said.
I am flattered with the personal regard you manifested
for me ; but I do hope that, on mature reflection, you will
view the public interest as a paramount consideration, and
therefore determine to let the worst come.
I assure you that the candid statement of facts on your
part, however low it may sink me, shall never break the
ties of personal friendship between us.
I wish an answer to this, and you are at liberty to pub-
lish both if you choose.
Very respectfully,
A. Lincoln.
A remarkable production this, from a half -fledged back-
woods politician, in the heat of an election contest ! The
refined irony of Lincoln's thrust — for a notorious per-
verter of facts was the Colonel — left this old campaigner
54 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
as helplessly impaled upon its point as was the other
veteran upon the barb of his own lightning-rod. Allen —
need we say ? — did not avail himself of the permission to
publish the letter or an answer thereto. He was silenced.
His son, finding the letter, long after the incident had been
forgotten, gave to the public this further evidence of how
" the young man," who was " to be taken down," exchanged
roles, on occasion, with the gentlemen in charge of the
performance.^
The canvass of 1836, stirring as it was, did not put the
candidates so much on their mettle as did that of 1840 —
the annus mirabilis of American politics. The enthu-
siasm of " the hard-cider campaign," with its acres of
mass-meetings, its processions, frolics, songs, free drinks,
log-cabins, and coon-skins, pervaded, as elsewhere, the local
elections in Illinois. State questions were lost sight of in
national issues, such as they were, and Lincoln, besides
his candidature for the Assembly, had a place on the Whig
electoral ticket. Entering into the contest with his accus-
tomed zeal, he was much in evidence throughout Illinois
that year ; yet what he said in debate and on the stump
is, as was the case in previous struggles, largely a matter
of conjecture.^ On the other hand, some of the things
that he did impressed themselves, firmly enough, in the
people's memory.
The voters of 1840 flocked into political meetings not
to learn and to reflect, but to shout, to scuffle, to laugh,
and to sing. How cleverly Lincoln adapted himself to such
an audience and, at the same time, crushed an opponent,
with a turn of the wrist, as one might say, has been re-
lated by some of his associates. He was frequently opposed
on the stump — so runs the story — by Colonel Dick Tay-
lor, a demagogue with a weakness for sarcasm and fine
clothes. Severely Democratic in theory, however, the Colo-
nel took care to keep as much of his finery as possible out
of sight, while he had his flings at the aristocratic preten-
sions of the Whigs, or warned " the hard-handed yeomanry "
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 55
against " rag-barons " and " manufacturing-lords." Such
taunts made up the stock of his inflated oratory, as usual,
one day, when Lincoln, " to take the wind out of his sails,"
as he expressed it, slipped to the speaker's side and catch-
ing his vest by the lower edge, gave it a sharp pull. " It
opened wide," says one of the narrators, " and out fell
upon the platform, in full view of the astonished audience,
a mass of ruffled shirt, gold watch, chains, seals, and glitter-
ing jewels." According to another veracious historian, the
vest, when so rudely shaken, merely " opened and revealed
to his astonished hearers " the Colonel's concealed gran-
deur. At all events, Lincoln, guiltless of linen and soft
raiment, made the most of the situation. Pointing to the
mortified orator, he exclaimed : —
" Behold the hard-fisted Democrat ! Look, gentlemen,
at this specimen of the bone and sinew. And here, gen-
tlemen,"— laying his large, coarse hand on his heart,
and bowing, — " here, at your service, here is your aris-
tocrat ! Here is one of your silk-stocking gentry. Here
is your rag-baron with his lily-white hands. Yes, I sup-
pose I, according to my friend Taylor, am a bloated aris-
tocrat."
After speaking of the demagogue's customary vaporings,
he went on : —
" While Colonel Taylor was making these charges
against the Whigs over the country, riding in fine car-
riages, wearing ruffled shirts, kid gloves, massive gold
watch-chains with large gold seals and flourishing a heavy
gold-headed cane, I was a poor boy, hired on a flat-boat
at eight dollars a month, and had only one pair of breeches
to my back, and they were buckskin. Now, if you know the
nature of buckskin, when wet and dried by the sun, it will
shrink ; and my breeches kept shrinking until they left
several inches of my legs bare, between the tops of my
socks and the lower part of my breeches ; and whilst I was
growing taller they were becoming shorter, and so much
tighter that they left a blue streak around my legs that
S6 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
can be seen to this day. If you call this aristocracy, I
plead guilty to the charge."
Lincoln's humor and the discomfiture of his opponent
were irresistible. Amidst Gargantuan peals of laughter,
in which one of the audience " nearly broke his heart with
mirth," was this elegant Democrat pilloried, in Sangamon
County, for the rest of his career. As to " the young man,"
he had simply " taken down " one more lofty antagonist.^"
There were times, during this extraordinary canvass,
when raillery, as well as argument, failed to move a crowd ;
when, in fact, physical courage alone sufficed to control
the turbulent spirits. It was on such an occasion, one
evening, that Lincoln's friend, Edward Dickinson Baker,
who already gave promise of the brilliant career that lay
before him, addressed a hostile audience, in the Springfield
court-room. The place happened to be directly below the
law office of Stuart & Lincoln, in which the junior member
of the firm lay listening, through a trap-door that opened
above the platform. The speaker, as he warmed to his
subject, denounced, with the impetuous eloquence that
afterward made him famous, the dishonesty of Democratic
officials. " Wherever there is a land-office, there you will
find a Democratic newspaper defending its corruptions ! "
he thundered.
" Pull him down ! " shouted John B. Weber, whose
brother was the editor of the local administration sheet.
There was a noisy rush toward the platform, and, for
the moment, it seemed as if Baker, who stood pale yet
firm, would be punished for his temerity. Then, to the
astonishment of the advancing crowd, a lank form dangled
through the scuttle, and Lincoln dropped upon the plat-
form between them and the object of their anger. After
gesticulating in vain for silence, he seized the stone water-
jug and shouted : —
" I '11 break it over the head of the first man who lays
a hand on Baker ! "
As the assailants hesitated, he continued : —
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 57
" Hold on, gentlemen, let us not disgrace the age and
country in which we live. This is a land where freedom
of speech is guaranteed. Mr. Baker has a right to speak
and ought to be permitted to do so. I am here to protect
him, and no man shall take him from this stand, if I can
prevent it."
The crowd receded, quiet was restored, and Baker
finished his speech without further interruption.^^
It was under somewhat similar circumstances, and dur-
ing this same contest, that the muscular candidate in-
terposed his commanding presence between some enraged
Democratic partisans and another Whig orator. The
speaker, in that instance, was General Usher F. Linder.
He delivered before a large audience, in the Springfield
State House, a spirited address, which was interrupted by
threats and insults. Thereupon, Lincoln and Baker, who
were present, mounted the platform and stationed them-
selves one on each side of him. As soon as the speaker
had concluded, they passed their arms through his, and
Lincoln said : —
" Linder, Baker and I are apprehensive that you may
be attacked by some of those ruffians who insulted you
from the galleries, and we have come up to escort you to
your hotel. We both think we can do a little fighting, so
we want you to walk between us until we get you to your
hotel. Your quarrel is our quarrel and that of the great
Whig Party of this nation ; and your speech, upon this
occasion, is the greatest one that has been made by any
of us, for which we wish to honor, love, and defend you."
The three men walked unmolested through the crowd
that, following them to the hotel, gave the orator, before
it dispersed, three hearty cheers.^
The violence that marked " the hard-cider campaign '*
consistently extended to the very polls. On election day,
word was brought to Lincoln that a certain railroad con-
tractor, named Radford, had, in the interests of the Demo-
crats, taken possession with his workmen of a polling-place
58 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
and was hindering the Whigs from voting. Lincoln, seiz-
ing an ax-handle, made for the scene of action, on a run.
" Radford," he said, as he opened a way to the ballot-
box, " you '11 spoil and blow, if you live much longer." ^
The contractor, who knew the character of the man
with whom he was dealing, did not stay to argue the
question. He at once withdrew, somewhat — it must be
admitted — to the disappointment of the candidate, who
confided to his friend Speed that he wanted Radford to
show fight, as he " intended just to knock him down and
leave him kicking." Lincoln's "stern advice," as one
writer terms it, was sufficient, however, to rout the heelers,
and to secure the Whigs, that day, at least, against any
further encroachments upon their rights.^^
The spirit with which our campaigner plunged into
conflict in behalf of his party, his friends, or himself, lost
none of its vigor when the scene of his activities was
transferred from the stump to the legislature. There,
though one of the youngest and probably one of the least
experienced of the members, he took his position, after
the initiation of his first term, as if it were a matter of
course, on the battle line. In the stirring session of 1836-
37, county was arrayed against county, town against town.
Their several representatives struggled for a prize, dear
to every ambitious community — the State capitol. The
seat of government was to be removed from Vandalia, but
whither ? Among the most strenuous claimants was San-
gamon County, which had entrusted the task of securing
this honor for Springfield to its Assemblymen and Sen-
ators. They constituted a notable group, — sons of Anak,
all, — to whom was applicable, in more respects than one,
their sobriquet, the " Long Nine " ; ^ and the longest of
them was the member from New Salem. His colleagues,
recognizing at the very outset his talent for leadership,
assigned to him the management of their fight ; for fight
indeed it was. The opponents of Springfield were numerous
and stubborn. Twice they prevailed so far as to lay the
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 59
bill in its behalf on the table ; but Lincoln contested every
inch of the ground. " In those darkest hours," says one
of his associates, " when our Bill to all appearances was
beyond resuscitation, and all our opponents were jubilant
over our defeat, and when friends could see no hope, Mr.
Lincoln never for one moment despaired ; but, collecting
his colleagues to his room for consultation, his practical
common-sense, his thorough knowledge of human nature,
then made him an overmatch for his compeers and for any
man that I have ever known." ^
Holding his delegation well in hand, and casting its
influence, on most questions, as a unit, Lincoln availed
himself of the then current craze for " internal improve-
ments " so as steadily to increase the Springfield following.
To what extent he indulged in the reprehensible practice
of trading votes, and whether or not he merited " the repu-
tation of being the best log-roller in the legislature," may
not be considered here. Suffice it to say that he did roll
up the pledges for his bill, at every move, and that, shortly
before adjournment, he carried the day for Springfield.
This success, though much of it was due to Lincoln's skil-
ful political manipulation, is to be ascribed, in part as well,
to what may be best described as his personal magnetism.
" He made Webb and me vote for the removal," says Jesse
K. Dubois, one of the Whig Assemblymen, " though we
belonged to the southern end of the State. We defended
our vote before our constituents by saying that necessity
would ultimately force the seat of government to a cen-
tral position. But, in reality, we gave the vote to Lincoln
because we liked him, because we wanted to oblige our
friend, and because we recognized him as our leader."
His party in the Lower House, remarkable as it must have
seemed, had in fact, before the close of the session, begun
to look for guidance to this new man. In that uneven
contest of Sangamon against the field were manifested
not a few of the qualities which parliamentary minorities
look for in their captains.
6o LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Having demonstrated his ability to conduct an aggres-
sive campaign, it remained for the Sangamon Chief, as
Lincoln was now sometimes called, to prove his mettle
on the defensive. An opportunity soon presented itself,
inasmuch as somewhat of the animosity engendered
by the struggle for the capitol outlived the legislature
that dealt with the question. In the extra session, called
during the following summer, the opponents of Spring-
field made a vigorous attempt to repeal the law which
had established that town as the seat of government. The
movement was led by General William L. D. Ewing, ex-
United States Senator, who in a stinging address accused
the " Long Nine " of having won their victory by " chi-
canery and trickery." Sparing neither invective nor sar-
casm, he arraigned the members from Sangamon with a
severity that called for immediate reply. Who would take
up the gage flung down by this formidable antagonist —
a man of culture, standing, and distinguished personal
courage ? Lincoln promptly did so. In a spirited speech,
he defended the " Long Nine," and made countercharges
of corruption against Ewing and his associates. So keen
was this denunciation that the House believed the speaker,
as one of the auditors reports, to be " digging his own
grave." " This was the time," says that same friend,
" that I began to conceive a very high opinion of the
talents and personal courage of Abraham Lincoln." And
with reason, for General Ewing, masterful and hot-tem-
pered, would surely close such a controversy with a chal-
lenge. " Gentlemen," he said, turning to the Sangamon
section, " have you no other champion than this coarse
and vulgar fellow to bring into the lists against me ? Do
you suppose that I will condescend to break a lance with
your low and obscure colleague ? " What justification
Ewing had, on that occasion, for so harsh a reference to
his opponent's breeding cannot be determined, as there is
no report of what Lincoln said, extant. The speech must
have been effectual, however. " Our friend carries the
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 6i
true Kentucky rifle," was the comment of a Springfield
editor, on Lincoln, at about that time, " and when he fires,
he seldom fails of sending the shot home." " The weapon
used on Ewing was doubtless double-barreled ; for the
scheme to have the Capital Law repealed fell to the ground,
and the assailant of the " Long Nine " was so hard hit
that the interference of friends alone prevented a duel.^
Small wonder that the General did not approve of " this
coarse and vulgar fellow," or that the Sangamon delega-
tion was content to leave its standard in the hands of such
a champion.
The force and fearlessness that had marked the reply
to Ewing were not soon forgotten. Whenever thereafter,
in the legislature or outside of it, the " Long Nine " were
assailed, — and their enemies were numerous enough, —
Lincoln was put forward to defend them. Once they were
intemperately attacked by Jesse B. Thomas, a lawyer of
ability and one of the most distinguished Democratic
politicians in the State. While he spoke, Lincoln, who
happened to be absent from the meeting, was sent for.
Hastening to the court-house, in which the incident took
place, the Sangamon chief mounted the platform after
the speaker and made a reply, the language of which
none of his auditors remembered, but the manner and
effect of which were never effaced from their memories.
Denunciation of Thomas, ridicule of his foibles, even
mimicry of certain physical peculiarities followed one
another, in rapid succession, amidst uproarious laughter
and applause. So sharp was the onslaught that its object
is said to have wept with vexation as he hurried from the
scene. His emotion tempered the triumph of his adver-
sary, who hunted him up, and, with characteristic good
nature, apologized for the severity of the reply. This
speech, like the invective against Ewing, has unfortu-
nately not been preserved. The impression it made, how-
ever, in the political circles of Springfield may be inferred
from the fact that it became a byword under the title
62 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
of " the skinning of Thomas." From that time forward,
moreover, but few Democratic orators, if we may judge
from the records, cared to concern themselves with the
iniquities of the " Long Nine." ^
The judgment of Sangamon in the selection of its
chief was vindicated, not alone by his successful battles
in its behalf, but also by the action of his party. The
Whigs, in the Assembly of 1837, as has been said, had
begun to regard Lincoln as their head. In 1838, when the
Lower House was organizing, they awarded him that dis-
tinction, beyond a doubt, by making him their candidate
for the speakership. This was no small honor for a man
of twenty-nine, particularly when that man was the " low
and obscure " Lincoln ; while his opponent, the Democratic
nominee, happened to be no less a notability than that
Ewing who had applied these epithets to him, a few months
before. As the Whigs were in the minority, they of course
did not elect their candidate. He maintained his place,
nevertheless, at their head, and again received their votes
for the office, in the legislature of 1840. Then, as in the
former election, he was pitted against Ewing, and, because
of the weakness of his party, with the same result. But
the vital fact for us, the point which stands out above the
flat details of these speakership contests, is the elevation
of Offutt's gawky clerk, in an almost incredibly short
period, to parliamentary leadership.
The steps by which Lincoln mounted to the mastery of
his party in the legislature are not clearly defined. Nor
is it easy to place one's hand upon the quality or quali-
ties, in his make-up, which contributed most to that result.
Courage, force, devotion, tact, and ready wit underlie
the few narratives here set down ; but as the incidents
were selected with a view to illustration, rather than to
historical completeness, they leave unnoticed other traits
that deserve mention, even though they have not been
severally crystallized in the heart of a good story. The
political honesty that led Lincoln to cast his lot with a
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 63
party in apparently hopeless minority ; the loyalty that
held him true to the interests of that party, when others
turned their coats ; the intellectual thoroughness and
candor which rendered him formidable in debate, as well
as influential in council ; the extreme of self-reliance that
rarely required assistance or advice, yet could receive
without impatience what it did not want ; the homely,
unaffected good humor that expressed itself at every turn
in a funny story or a sympathetic word, and won for him
the title of " uncommon good fellow," even from men
with whom he would neither smoke nor drink, — these
also are some of the plus factors, as one might say, which
in this his first political epoch already entered into the
making of the master's character. He cannot, it is true,
be said to have evinced, all in all, remarkable generalship,
either on the stump or in the House. Indeed, if Lincoln's
public career had closed with his last term in the Assem-
bly, even local history might have found scant inspira-
tion in those few electioneering episodes, or in the wild-
cat legislation to which he contributed no unimportant
part. As it is, however, the decade forms an essential
link in the chain of our investigation. It may be termed
the transition period from physical to intellectual power.
Both held sway by turns, yet so conjointly that we can
almost discern how the aggressive quality of the one was
merged into that of the other. In this readjustment of
his forces Lincoln, still held his own. Novel conditions
speedily became familiar environment, and new men,
great as well as small, took therein their proper places.
As for the tall member from Sangamon, when he found
his place, it was — need we add ? — at the head.
Nor did Lincoln fail to maintain this ascendancy in
several severe quarrels that took place outside of the
legislature. Two, of a quasi-political nature, in which he
became involved subsequent to his controversy with
Ewing, afford further glimpses of his character, on its
forceful side. The first of these encounters occurred dur-
64 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
ing the summer of 1837, shortly after he had become a
lawyer and had taken up his residence in Springfield, as
the partner of a Black Hawk War comrade, Major John
T. Stuart. The firm had been retained by a widow to
prosecute a claim against a certain General James Adams,
whom she accused of acquiring title to a ten-acre lot by
the forgery of her deceased husband's signature. While
the case was pending, the defendant, a chronic aspirant
for public office, became a candidate for the place of
probate justice. A few days before the election, he was
unsparingly attacked for his conduct, in an anonymous
handbill, which closed with the sentence : —
" I shall not subscribe my name, but hereby authorize
the editor of the Journal to give it up to any one who
may call for it."
Copies of the document having been scattered broad-
cast about the streets, they gave rise to a controversy,
which was heightened rather than allayed by the election
of Adams. He denied the charges in a long letter to the
Sangamo Journal. The issue of the paper in which his
communication appeared also contained a reprint of the
original handbill, with an announcement by the editor
that " A. Lincoln, Esq.," was its author. The quarrel
raged for several weeks in the columns of the Journal
and of the Springfield Republican. Step by step, Lincoln
followed Adams up, exposing the seamy side of his career,
and capping the climax with a copy of an indictment for
forgery, found against him in Oswego County, New York,
nineteen years before. An unscrupulous adventurer, this ;
yet the young barrister does not seem to have hesitated.
In fact, the worse " the General's " character proved to
be, as his past life was unfolded, the more fearless became
his adversary's denunciations. Replying to Adams's flings
at lawyers, Lincoln wrote : —
" He attempted to impose himself upon the community
as a lawyer, and he actually carried the attempt so far as
to induce a man who was under the charge of murder to
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 65
enti-ust the defence of bis life to his hands, and finally
took his money and got him hanged. Is this the man that
is to raise a breeze in bis favor by abusing lawyers ? . . .
If he is not a lawyer, he is a liar; for he proclaimed
himself a lawyer, and got a man hanged by depending
on him. . . . Farewell, General, I will see you again at
court, if not before — when and where we will settle the
question whether you or the widow shall have the land." ^
The widow did get the land, Adams was completely
discredited, and one more scalp hung from the belt of the
Sangamon Chief.
The second quarrel, like the first, mingled public with
private motives, and grew, in similar fashion, out of an
anonymous composition from Lincoln's pen. In the one
case, as in the other, moreover, he manifested the fear-
less and masterful spirit with which we have by this time
become familiar. But further than that the resemblance
did not go ; for Lincoln's exposure of a scamp like Adams
had little in common with his unwarrantable attack upon
James Shields. Shields was a brave, quick-tempered
young Irishman, with a full share of his countrymen's
taste for love and politics. An ardent Democrat of course,
he had been elected to the Illinois Assembly even before
observing the trivial formality of naturalization, and, a
few years later, his services to the party had been re-
warded with the place of State Auditor. The office gave
him a certain prominence, which he is said to have made
the most of in Springfield society. In truth, this gallant
bachelor from County Tyrone was a very " lion among
ladies." It is not surprising, therefore, that his social
vanities, no less than his political flourishes, offered a
tempting mark to the assaults of the Whigs. Their ani-
mus against the Auditor was intensified, during the sum-
mer of 1842, when the insolvent condition of the State
treasury and the depreciation in the value of State Bank
notes caused the Governor and his financial officers to
issue a proclamation forbidding the payment of taxes
66 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
in the almost worthless bank paper. As this was, practi-
cally, the only money in the hands of the people, they
assailed the Democratic State government, from every
quarter, with an outburst of indignation, which the
Whigs — regardless of their own part in the extravagant
improvement legislation that had given rise to the trouble
— lost no opportunity of stimulating. The newspapers
and leaders of the m.inority party were severe in their
censure of the State authorities, among whom, by the way,
the Auditor had rendered himself especially obnoxious.
Upon him, in the midst of the denunciations, fell the
heaviest charge of all ; for it was directed by that same
Kentucky marksman who seldom failed, as one of his
admirers told us, " of sending the shot home."
The caustic humor that, from The First Chronicles
of Reuben to " the skinning of Thomas," had now and
then been so effectively employed by Lincoln in mastering
an opponent, here again came into play. He contributed
to the Sangamo Journal of September 2, edited at the
time by his friend Simeon Francis, a singular composi-
tion. It purported to be A Letter from the Lost Town-
ships, written by a Democratic widow who signed herself
"Rebecca."^ In robust country dialect, she denounced
"these officers of State" as a hypocritical set, that ought
to be supplanted in the places they disgraced by men who
would " do more work for less pay, and take fewer airs
while they are doing it." The " airs " of the Auditor had
particularly aroused Rebecca's ire; for upon that func-
tionary burst almost the whole torrent of her coarse
ridicule.
" I seed him," she reports a neighbor as saying, " when
I was down in Springfield last winter. They had a sort
of a gatherin' there one night among the grandees, they
called a fair. All the gals about town was there, and all
the handsome widows and married women, finickin' about
trying to look like gals. ... I looked in at the window,
and there was this same fellow Shields floatin' about
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 67
on the air, without heft or earthly substances, just like a
lock of cat fur where cats had been fighting. He was pay-
ing his money to this one, and that one, and t'other one,
and sufferin' great loss because it was n't silver instead of
State paper ; and the sweet distress he seemed to be in —
his very features, in the ecstatic agony of his soul, spoke
audibly and distinctly : — ' Dear girls, it is distressing,
but I cannot marry you all. Too well I know how much
you suffer ; but do, do remember, it is not my fault that
I am so handsome and so interesting.' As this last was
expressed by a most exquisite contortion of his face, he
seized hold of one of their hands, and squeezed, and held
on to it about a quarter of an hour. ' Oh, my good fel-
low ! ' says I to myself, ' if that was one of our Democratic
gals in the Lost Townships, the way you 'd get a brass pin
let into you would be about up to the head.' "
So much for ridicule ; as to abuse, there was nothing in
the letter more severe than this comment on a circular,
issued by the Auditor : —
" I say it 's a lie, and not a well told one at that. It
grins out like a copper dollar. Shields is a fool as well as
a liar. With him truth is out of the question ; and as for
getting a good, bright, passable lie out of him, you might
as well try to strike fire from a cake of tallow."
Fighting words these, as the writer must have known,
especially when applied to a man of Shields's calibre.
Touched to the quick by the satire, and enraged by
the attack upon his honor, the hot-blooded young Auditor
did not conduct himself with that coolness which is alone
effectual against such assaults. On the contrary, amidst
the merriment of the town, he gave way to his fury after
a fashion that must have gratified his assailant. More
than that, it started the mischievous pens of two Whig-
gish and, we may add, waggish young ladies, Mary Todd
and her friend Julia M. Jayne. Their interest in politics
is accounted for by the fact that within the next few
months they became respectively Mrs. Abraham Lincoln
68 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
and Mrs. Lyman Trumbull. Moreover, what is more to
the point, the former of these ladies was, at the time, con-
ducting a clandestine renewal of her interrupted court-
ship with the author of A Letter from the Lost Townships,
under the roof of Editor Francis. His hospitality opened
to her the columns of the Journal^ as well as his house,
when she and her confidante, taking up the theme where
Lincoln had left it, concocted a second letter. In this
sequel, Shields's threats of vengeance appear to have
frightened Rebecca into a proposal of marriage, by way
of compromise. She prefers "matrimonial bliss" to "a
lickin' " ; but, if the Auditor persist in his demands for
"personal satisfaction," she, on her side, as the challenged
party, will insist on the choice of weapons. "Which bein'
the case," she concludes, " I '11 tell you in confidence that
I never fights with anything but broomsticks, or hot water,
or a shovelful of coals, or some such thing ; the former of
which, being somewhat like a shillalah, may not be very
objectional to him. I will give him choice, however, in
one thing, and that is, whether, when we fight, I shall
wear breeches or he petticoats ; for, I presume that change
is sufficient to place us on an equality." But the affair
terminated — that is to say according to the fair satirists
— without bloodshed; for they closed their literary labors
with some doggerel verses, celebrating the nuptials of the
bachelor and the widow.
Not so peacefully disposed was the object of these
attacks. In his veins, be it remembered, still flowed the
ichor of Donnybrook. He was an expert swordsman,
moreover, and in his youth had been an instructor in
fencing. Smarting more than ever under a sense of injury,
he sent his friend General John D. Whiteside, of Black
Hawk War fame, to the editor, with a demand for the
name of the author. If this was not complied with, Fran-
cis was himself to be held responsible. In his dilemma,
thes editor consulted Lincoln, who, about to leave town
on the fall circuit, directed Francis to give his name, but
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 69
to make no mention of the ladles. That the creator of
" Rebecca " understood what the situation involved is
evinced by the fact that he had sought out a certain
dragoon major, who, broadsword in hand, drilled him in
" fencing, and the use of arms,
The art of urgiug and avoiding harms,
The noble science and the mastering skill
Of making just approaches how to kill."
As for Shields, following Lincoln to Tremont, he lost
as little time as might be in sending Whiteside to him
with a letter which, considering the state of society in the
Springfield of that day and the writer's provocation, wo
are hardly inclined to ridicule. The missive, truth to say,
conformed to Sir Lucius O'Trigger's rule, that when a
man frames a challenge, he must " do the thing decently
and like a Christian." It protested, temperately enough,
against the " slander, vituperation, and personal abuse "
in the Lost Townships articles, and concluded with : —
" I will not take the trouble of inquiring into the reason
of all this, but I will take the liberty of requiring a full,
positive, and absolute retraction of all offensive allusions
used by you in these communications, in relation to my
private character and standing as a man, as an apology
for the insults conveyed in them. This may prevent con-
sequences which no one will regret more than myself."
Lincoln's reply was singularly lacking in regard to the
homely candor that is the particular charm of his corre-
spondence. He wrote : —
" You say you have been informed, through the medium
of the editor of the Journal^ that I am the author of
certain articles in that paper which you deem personally
abusive of you ; and, without stopping to inquire whether
I really am the author, or to point out what is offensive
in them, you demand an unqualified retraction of all that
is offensive, and then proceed to hint at consequences.
Now, sir, there is in this so much assumption of facts,
and so much of menace as to consequences, that I cannot
70 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
submit to answer that note any further than I have, and
to add, that the consequences to which I suppose you
allude would be matter of as great regret to me as it
possibly could to you."
Shields rejoined, disavowing any intention of menacing
Lincoln, asking whether he had written the articles in
question, and repeating his request, if so, for a retraction
of the offensive allusions. This letter Lincoln refused to
answer unless Shields's first communication were with-
drawn ; but the demand met with no response.
By this time, the critical phase of the quarrel had
been reached. The principals, as well as their representa-
tives, treated one another with the top-lofty dignity which
usage immemorial has, for such occasion, established.
Lincoln, nevertheless, would gladly have withdrawn from
the squabble, if this had been possible without discredit.
To one of his friends, Dr. E. H. Merryman, who, with
another, hastened to Tremont, in order to stand by him
during the affair, he expressed himself as wholly opposed
to dueling, and as willing to do anything to avoid a fight,
that might not degrade him in the estimation of himself
or of his friends. ^^ Accordingly, in some instructions
which he drew up for the doctor's guidance, he pledged
himself, provided all letters were withdrawn and repara-
tion were properly requested, to give this answer : —
" I did write the ' Lost Townships ' letter which ap-
peared in the Journal of the 2d instant, but had no par-
ticipation in any form in any other article alluding to
you. I wrote that wholly for political effect. I had no
intention of injuring your personal or private character
or standing as a man or a gentleman ; and I did not then
think, and do not now think, that that article could pro-
duce, or has produced, that effect against you ; and had I
anticipated such an effect, I would have forborne to write
it. And I will add that your conduct toward me, so far as
I know, had always been gentlemanly, and that I had no
personal pique against you, and no cause for any."
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 71
The memorandum then prescribed the conditions under
which, if the explanation were not accepted, the writer,
as the challenged party, would fight. The meeting was to
take place near Alton, on the Missouri side of the river,
within the following two or three days.
" Weapons : — Cavalry broadswords of the largest size,
precisely equal in all respects and such as now used by
the cavalry company at Jacksonville.
" Position : — A plank ten feet long, and from nine to
twelve inches broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the
ground, as the line between us, which neither is to pass
his foot over upon forfeit of his life. Next, a line drawn
on the ground on either side of said plank and parallel
with it, each at the distance of the whole length of the
sword and three feet additional from the plank ; and
the passing of his own such line by either party during
the fight shall be deemed a surrender of the contest."
This formidable document was read by Dr. Merryman
to Shields's friend General Whiteside, but without the
desired result ; for, a few days thereafter, two parties, con-
sisting of the principals, their seconds, surgeons, and other
attendants, met on an island — Bloody Island,*^ if you
please — in the Mississippi, below Alton. Upon reaching
the ground, Shields found Lincoln already there, ax in
hand and coat thrown off, clearing away the underbrush,
for that fateful parallelogram. Before the duel could take
place, however, Colonel John J. Hardin and Dr. R. W.
English, common friends of the combatants, arrived upon
the scene, and patched up a peace by persuading Shields
to withdraw his letters and to accept the explanation that
Lincoln had offered.
The duelists left the field in amiable spirits toward
each other, as may be gathered from the reminiscences
of an old resident of Alton, who, with others, stood at
the ferry anxiously awaiting the issue. " It was not very
long," said he, " until the boat was seen returning to Alton.
As it drew near, I saw what was presumably a mortally
72 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
wounded man lying on the bow of the boat. His shirt
appeared to be bathed in blood. I distinguished Jacob
Smith, a constable, fanning the supposed victim, vigor-
ously. The people, on the bank, held their breath in sus-
pense, and guesses were freely made as to which of the two
men had been so terribly wounded. But suspense was
soon turned to chagrin and relief when it transpired that
the supposed candidate for another world was nothing
more nor less than a log covered with a red shirt. This
ruse had been resorted to in order to fool the people on the
levee ; and it worked to perfection. Lincoln and Shields
came off the boat together, chatting in a nonchalant and
pleasant manner." ^* Your votaries of " the code " might
frown upon that playful device of the bleeding log. It set
at naught the niceties of decorum, which are their meat
and drink ; yet how characteristic it was of at least one
of those smiling gentlemen !
All the hot blood engendered by this affair did not, as
might be supposed, cool off so readily. Two weeks later,
we find Lincoln writing to his friend Speed : —
" You have heard of my duel with Shields, and I have
now to inform you that the dueling business still rages in
this city. Day before yesterday. Shields challenged But-
ler,^ who accepted, and proposed fighting next morning,
at sunrise, in Bob Allen's meadow, one hundred yards'
distance, with rifles. To this Whiteside, Shields's second,
said 'no' because of the law. Thus ended duel No. 2.
Yesterday, Whiteside chose to consider himself insulted
by Dr. Merryman, so sent him a kind of quasi-challenge,
inviting him to meet him at the Planter's House, in St.
Louis, on the next Friday, to settle their difficulty. Merry-
man made me his friend, and sent Whiteside a note, in-
quiring to know if he meant his note as a challenge, and
if so, that he would, according to the law in such case
made and provided, prescribe the terms of the meeting." ^®
Duel No. 3, suffice it to say, — for we have had enough
of "the dueling business," — was, like No. 1 and No. 2,
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 73
fought with the tongues and the pens of the combatants
to a bloodless finish.
Having made his single appearance as a principal,
and then as a second, on the so-called " field of honor,"
Lincoln quickly recovered his moral equilibrium. He ap-
pears to have become ashamed of his share in the quarrel,
and to have refrained, for the most part, from discussing
it with his friends. Several of them, in fact, record their
failures to draw him into conversation on the subject.
His partner, Mr. Herndon, reports this one voluntary
reference to the duel : —
" I did not intend to hurt Shields unless I did so clearly
in self-defence. If it had been necessary, I could have
split him from the crown of his head to the end of his
backbone." ^^
Lincoln's confidence in his power to vanquish Shields,
no less than his freedom from animosity towards him,
was further manifested shortly after the meeting, in a
few words dropped to Usher F. Linder. As they stood
together, near the Danville court-house, Lincoln picked
up a lath and went through the broadsword manual. His
friend, improving the occasion, asked why broadswords
had been chosen for the proposed duel. The man with
the lath answered : —
" To tell you the truth, Linder, I did n't want to kill
Shields and felt sure I could disarm him, having had
about a month to learn the broadsword exercise ; and
furthermore, I did n't want the damned fellow to kill me,
which I rather think he would have done if we had se-
lected pistols." ^
The ghost of the duel still hovered over the scene. In
the spring of the following year, Lincoln closed a letter
on politics to Hardin with : —
" I wish you would measure one of the largest of those
swords we took to Alton, and write me the length of it,
from tip of the point to tip of the hilt, in feet and inches.
I have a dispute about the length." ^^
74 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Thereafter, Lincoln's friends respected his desire that
the affair should not be spoken of, and it seemed to have
been forgotten.
Greatly to Mr. Herndon's surprise, while on his
visit in the Eastern States during the spring of 1858, to
promote his partner's senatorial ambitions, he was fre-
quently asked for an account of the so-called duel. Upon
his return, the fact was reported to Lincoln, who sadly
remarked : —
" If all the good things I have ever done are remem-
bered as long and well as my scrape with Shields, it is
plain I shall not soon be forgotten." ^"
The " scrape " was not so well remembered by the
speaker's enemies as might have been expected. Two
years later, the muckrake of a bitter opposition failed —
if we may judge from the now available campaign litera-
ture of 1860 — to turn up the incident. So the " Party of
Moral Ideas " was spared the mortification of defending
its candidate's atrocities as a duelist.^^ During the Civil
War, the story, having again made its rounds, returned
to plague its hero, for the last time. A few weeks before
his death, the President, together with Mrs. Lincoln,
entertained a distinguished officer of the army. During
the conversation, the visitor said ; —
"Is it true, Mr. President, as I have heard, that you
once went out to fight a duel for the sake of the lady by
your side ? "
" I do not deny it," answered Mr. Lincoln, with a
flushed face, "but if you desire my friendship, you will
never mention the circumstance again." ^^
This admission, which indeed was but the grudging
half-truth of a man who wished to dispose of a distaste-
ful topic, seems to warrant the oft-repeated claim that Miss
Todd was responsible for all the obnoxious articles, and
that her lover, to shield her, chivalrously avowed himself
to be their author. Here is a pleasing fiction plentifully
vouched for, which we should like to accept.^^ The
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 75
facts, however, — weeds of fact will persist in springing
up among the flowers of romance, — leave no ground for
doubt as to the authorship of the first and most offensive
of the letters ; while those same dull realities make short
work of the gallantry which, when pressed, merely con-
sisted in acknowledging that authorship.
Still less defensible are the efforts usually made to
gloss over Lincoln's conduct, at Shields's expense. The
special pleading takes a wide range — as wide as the
Mississippi itself, at the mile crossing, where, according
to one story, the challenged party had, with grotesque
humor, stipulated that the duelists should stand on oppo-
site banks and fight with broadswords.^^ Somewhat on
this order is the effort of Dr. Irelan — not by any means
a through-thick-and-thin eulogist — to treat the affair as
one of Lincoln's jokes. Says he : —
" Mr. Lincoln was absolutely opposed to dueling, and
very well knew from the first that there would be no duel
in this case. And here is where the ridiculousness of the
whole thing appears. The gory Shields and his friends
overlooked this entirely. The cavalry broadswords were
procured, and these were of from thirty-six to forty inch
blades ; then, under Mr. Lincoln's requirement, the com-
batants were not only to stand the length of the two
swords apart, but also six feet further, thus actually
placing them at least twelve feet apart. With this arrange-
ment, the most they could have done would have been to
touch the points of their swords, if Shields could have
measured half of that distance with his arm and sword.
Lincoln had made these impossible provisions in full view
of this funny side of the case. Even if the distance be-
tween the men had not been so preposterously great, the
poor Irishman would have had no chance without crossing
the board, which would have forfeited his life, while the
long body and arm of Lincoln might have rendered his
own position disagreeable. Mr. Lincoln's conduct in this
matter was deliberate and premeditated, and this it was
76 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
that took from him the odium of stooping to the savage
and unchristian 'code.' With him, Mr. Shields's case
began in fun, and ended in fun." ^^
A glance at the conditions, however, reveals that the
distance of twelve feet mentioned by the Doctor was not
to intervene between the combatants, but was, in fact, the
length of the ten by twelve foot oblong within which the
duelists, separated by the plank " on edge " only, were to
fight. Dr. Irelan's misinterpretation of the terms is shared
by the historians of Illinois, in whose opinion, also, the
position " prescribed for the combatants on the field looks
a good deal like the cropping out of one of Lincoln's
irrepressible jokes ; as if both were placed out of harm's
way, and that they might beat the air with their trenchant
blades forever and not come within damaging reach of
each other." ^^
The fancy for separating the duelists by a river, or even
by a dozen feet, does not, of course, extend to aU the
writers who laugh at poor Shields and his wrongs. The
quarrel, in the eyes of one biographer, was " serio-comic " ;
another terms it " a silly fracas " ; while a third dismisses
it as " certainly a boyish alfair " ; still another thinks that
" nothing but a tragedy could have prevented its being
a farce " ; a recent author would have us believe that
the challenged party tried to avert a duel " by proposing
the most absurd conditions " ; and Lincoln's loyal secre-
taries, in view of the so-called " ludicrousness " of the
incident, devote most of their chapter on the subject to
the belittling of Shields, without, however, increasing the
stature of their hero." The amusing aspects of the story,
on which these writers lay so much stress, appear, for the
most part, to have escaped Lincoln's own usually keen
sense of humor. He had realized, early in the progress of
the broil, that he was on the wrong side of it. This alone
must have been sufficient to sober him. At all events, as
we have seen, he treated the affair seriously enough, and
had the grace to be ashamed of his jiart in it ever after-
LOVE, WAR, AND POLITICS 77
ward. No amount of laughter at Shields, whatever occa-
sion that volatile gentleman may have afforded, relieves
Lincoln of the onus which attaches to his attack upon the
Auditor and to his acceptance of the challenge.
The difficulty with Shields constituted Lincoln's last
personal quarrel. He had run the gamut from that first
schoolboy fight with his fists to the preliminaries, at least,
of what might have been a serious duel ; and with it end
our chronicles of his early encounters. Culled from the
first thirty-three years of his life, they have been strung
together, be it remembered, on the single thread of his
masterful nature. Although the nobler, gentler traits
have been thus practically disregarded, it would be man-
ifest error to forget that they, too, entered into the fash-
ioning of that strangely woven character, and that they
became stronger and deeper as the man developed. In-
deed, from this time forth, a mellower tone pervades his
behavior.^^ How much of the change was due to the hu-
miliation of the Shields squabble, to Lincoln's marriage
with Miss Todd, which followed it by but a few weeks, to
the requirements of a higher standing in his profession
and in political circles, cannot, of course, be determined.
We do know, however, that he never again became
involved in a private quarrel. Holding his own — yes,
more than holding^ his own — throusfhout the warmest con-
troversies and fiercest struggles in his country's history,
he is destined, as we shall learn, still to be master among
men, to control them as firmly as in the frontier days of
Faustrecht^ and withal, so gently, that they do not know
themselves to be controlled. Here is no simple achieve-
ment, yet it took the President but a moment once, and
that when the turmoil was at its height, to explain the
marvel, in part at least, by a simple formula. It was ad-
dressed to a young officer, who had been court-martialed
for quarreling with one of his fellows : —
" The advice of a father to his son, ' Beware of en-
trance to a quarrel, but, being in, bear 't that the opposed
78 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
may beware of thee,' is good, but not the best. Quarrel
not at all. No man, resolved to make the most of himself,
can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he
afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating
of his temper and the loss of self-control. Yield larger
things to which you can show no more than equal right ;
and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. Better give
your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting
for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the
bite." 5«
A far cry this, from the Lost Townships diatribe and
the rendezvous with broadswords on Bloody Island ; yet
the philosopher of 1862 may not, for all that, be thought
less spirited than the Hotspur of 1842. What of true
metal rang in the deeds of earlier times was not wanting
in later days, though its form, as we shall see, was changed
— changed, now and then, almost beyond recognition ;
for it became tempered and purified, in the fierce heat of
a fire that all but consumed a nation.
CHAPTER III
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE
The early encounters and controversies of Lincoln were
insignificant when compared to the rivalry that existed,
for almost twenty-five years, between him and Stephen
A. Douglas. First as enthusiastic adherents of opposing
parties, and later as acknowledged leaders of those par-
ties, they so conducted themselves that the orbits of their
political ambitions crossed and recrossed each other. The
star of Douglas was generally in the ascendant. He be-
came, successively, State's Attorney, member of the Illinois
legislature. Register of the Land Office at Springfield,
Secretary of State for Illinois, Judge of the Supreme
Court of that State, member of Congress, and United
States Senator. His rival's planet, on the other hand,
showed, during that same period, the comparatively mea-
gre glory of four terms in the State legislature and one
in the Lower House of Congress. Yet the inferior light,
swinging in season and out, across the pathway of the
other, became steadily brighter in the reflected rays of
the larger luminary, until suddenly they presented a sin-
gular phenomenon. The lesser became the greater, for
while the one had grown, the other had diminished ; and
the rising orb, throwing off at last the borrowed beams,
shone by its own intense power — so intense, indeed, that
as its splendor spread, the waning star went out in total
eclipse.
The political careers of these two men started at
about the same time and place. When Lincoln entered
upon his first term in the Illinois Assembly at Vandalia,
he met in the lobby a shrewd little Vermonter, four years
8o LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
his junior, who, notwithstanding extreme youth and brief-
ness of residence in the West, was conducting among the
members of the legislature what proved to be a successful
canvass for the office of State's Attorney for the first
judicial district. The newcomer was Stephen A. Douglas.
Identifying himself with the dominant party, he became
as pronounced in his Democracy as Lincoln was in his
Whigism. On opposite sides of the next Assembly, —
both of them were elected to the legislature of 1836, —
they clashed, from time to time, in tactics and debate.
The antagonism thus started in Vandalia was transferred
the following year to Springfield, where, within a few
months of each other, the young men took up their resi-
dence. Here differences in character and temperament,
rather than in party affiliations, acted as a bar to the
friendship, or even to the esteem, that is not uncommon
between contending politicians. If Douglas took one side
of a question, Lincoln might safely be looked for on the
other; and their rivalry soon became a recognized factor
in the spirited local contests of the day.
The first of these encounters concerning which any
details have been preserved took place during " the hard-
cider campaign." At the very beginning of that memo-
rable contest, one night in December, 1839, a group of
disputatious young politicians sat around the stove in
Joshua F. Speed's store. The argument, which is said to
have been mainly between Lincoln and Douglas, was at its
warmest when the latter sprang to his feet and said : —
" Gentlemen, this is no place to talk politics. We will
discuss the questions publicly with you."
This informal challenge was followed within a few days
by a resolution, which Lincoln offered in a meeting of the
Whigs, inviting their opponents to a debate. The Demo-
crats, accepting, appointed Stephen A. Douglas, John
Calhoun, Josiah Lamborn, and Jesse B. Thomas to meet
Stephen T. Logan, Edward D. Baker, Orville H. Brown-
ing, and Abraham Lincoln. These champions, for eight
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 8i
evenings, in the order named, defended and attacked by-
turns President Van Buren's independent treasury pro-
ject, with an occasional tilt over the other economic ques-
tions on which their respective parties differed. " The
great debate," as it was called, drew large audiences at
the outset ; but by the time Lincoln's evening, the last in
the series, arrived, the attendance had considerably dimin-
ished. This had a chilling effect upon the speaker, yet he
warmed up sufficiently to make what was considered the
best address of all — so good, in fact, that it was published
as a campaign document, not only in friend Francis's
newspaper, but also in pamphlet form.^ A glance through
the speech reveals how keenly, at that time already, the
" Sangamon Chief " was on the trail of his pet antagonist.
The other Democratic speakers, it is true, were mentioned
here and there, in refutation ; but to Douglas fell the
severest, and by far the largest share of Lincoln's atten-
tion. Here is a sample paragraph : —
" I return to another of Mr. Douglas's excuses for the
expenditures of 1838, at the same time announcing the
pleasing intelligence that this is the last one. He says
that ten millions of that year's expenditure was a contin-
gent appropriation, to prosecute an anticipated war with
Great Britain on the Maine boundary question. Few
words will settle this. First, that the ten millions appro-
priated was not made till 1839, and consequently could
not have been expended in 1838 ; second, although it was
appropriated, it has never been expended at all. Those
who heard Mr. Douglas recollect that he indulged himself
in a contemptuous expression of pity for me. ' Now he 's
got me,' thought I. But when he went on to say that five
millions of the expenditure of 1838 were payments of
the French indemnities, which I knew to be untrue ; that
five millions had been for the Post-office, which I knew
to be untrue ; that ten millions had been for the Maine
boundary war, which I not only knew to be untrue, but
supremely ridiculous also ; and when I saw that he was
82 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
stupid enough to hope that I would permit such ground-
less and audacious assertions to go unexposed, — I readily
consented that, on the score both of veracity and sagacity,
the audience should judge whether he or I were the more
deserving of the world's contempt." ^
This utterance was significant. Like the leading motive
in the overture to a music-drama, it struck, at the very
beginning of the Lincoln- Douglas struggle, a note that
was destined to run through many similar scenes, in which
these two were to be the principal actors.
During the canvass that followed the debate, Lincoln
and Douglas stumped the State in the interests of their
respective candidates, with equal enthusiasm.^ Collisions
between them were frequent, for the bearer of the Whig
standard lost no opportunity of speaking from the same
platform with the Democratic orator. In one of these
debates, Lincoln charged Van Buren with having voted
at the New York State Constitutional Convention of
1821, for negro suffrage with a property qualification.
This Douglas denied. Whereupon, Lincoln, to prove his
assertion, read, from Holland's Life of Van Buren, the
Wizard of Kinderhook's own statement that he had so
voted. Thus neatly cornered, "Douglas got mad," as the
story goes, and jumped up to dispose of both the charge
and the evidence, in characteristic fashion. Snatching
the volume from the reader's hand, he exclaimed, " Damn
such a book!" and hurled it among the audience.* In
another of their encounters, Douglas had no occasion for
so desperate a defence. On the contrary, he forced the
fighting too ably for his antagonist. " Lincoln," says a
friend of those days, " did not come up to the require-
ments of the occasion. He was conscious of his failure,
and I never saw any man so much distressed. He begged
to be permitted to try it again, and was reluctantly in-
dulged J and in the next effort he transcended our highest
expectations. I never heard, and never expect to hear,
such a triumphant vindication as he then gave of Whig
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 83
measures or policy." ^ But the victory of the canvass, so
far as it concerned our two young campaigners, rested
with Douglas. His opponent, it is true, was elected to the
Assembly ; yet the five electoral votes of Illinois, the real
prize of the contest, remained in the Democratic column.
The next important conflict between the rivals was
in a widely different field — as different, indeed, as hearts
are from ballots. Yet love and politics — witness the
Shields affair — were not so far apart as they might have
been, in the Springfield of 1840. At that time, Miss
Mary Todd, pretty, talented, and vivacious, had recently
come from her Kentucky home to live with her sister,
Mrs. Ninian W. Edwards. The hospitalities of the house
were naturally extended by Mr. Edwards, one of the
"Long Nine," to the leader of his delegation, so that
Lincoln was a frequent visitor. He paid court to the fas-
cinating little woman from his native State, and speedily
became her accepted suitor. Lincoln's success, no less
than the lady's charms, fanned the spirit of contention
that already existed between him and Douglas. The little
Vermonter, dashing and comely, followed his ungainly an-
tagonist into the lists to dispute with him, as vigorously
as in their political contests, the possession of this precious
trophy. How the fight was conducted cannot — unfortu-
nately for the romance of it — be told with the exactness
of detail that usually makes such episodes entertaining.
Says one old resident of Springfield : —
" As a society man, Douglas was infinitely more accom-
plished, more attractive, and influential than Lincoln ;
and that he should supplant the latter in the affections of
the proud and aristocratic Miss Todd is not to be mar-
veled at. He was unremitting in his attentions to the
lady, promenaded the streets arm-in-arm with her — fre-
quently passing Lincoln — and, in every way, made plain
his intention to become the latter's rival."
This was merely — so some said — a flirtation on the
part of Miss Todd to tease her lover. Others went so far
84 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
as to say that Douglas made a proposal of marriage and
was refused, " on account of his bad morals." Accord-
ing to still another account, she grew to prefer him, and
would have accepted his offer if she had not given her
promise to Lincoln. " The unfortunate attitude she felt
bound to maintain between these two young men," relates
the writer of this version, " ended in a spell of sickness.
Douglas, still hopeful, was warm in the race ; but the
lady's physician, her brother-in-law, Dr. William Wallace,
to whom she confided the real cause of her illness, saw
Douglas and induced him to end his pursuit, which he did
with great reluctance." So much for the doubtful inci-
dents of the contest ; but what of the result ? Douglas
withdrew, and Lincoln, after an otherwise not untroubled
courtship, led Miss Todd to the altar.*'
The private passage of arms between our politicians
did not, of course, lessen their public antagonism. Yet,
during the decade following the marriage, they had, it
appears, no noteworthy encounters. This may have been
due, in part at least, to the fact that Lincoln, diligently
practicing his profession, found less time than previously
for politics. He did, it is true, participate in conventions
and campaigns — even emerging into public life, in 1847,
for one term in Congress ; but there is no evidence that
these activities brought him into personal conflict with
his brilliant adversary. Moreover, the uninterrupted rise
of Douglas, during this same period, from the Illinois
Supreme Court Bench to Congress, and thence to the
United States Senate, carried him somewhat out of Lin-
coln's range. As the latter took his seat in the Lower
House, the former entered upon his career in the Upper.
The one, at the expiration of his term, returned to Spring-
field and the small-fry litigation of the Eighth Circuit,
without having achieved distinction ; the other soon be-
came a figure of national importance.
Each success of the man whom he regarded as his
particular rival added a pang to the ex-member's dis-
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 85
appointment. The trophy of Miltiades would not let The-
mistocles sleep ; and Lincoln, though he had come to look
upon political affairs with comparative indifference, could
not take his eyes off Douglas. So it happened that dur-
ing the presidential canvass of 1852, when the Senator
opened his stumping tour of the States, at Richmond, in a
speech that was extensively republished, Lincoln obtained
permission from the Scott Club of Springfield to deliver
an answer, under its auspices.^ The effort was not credit- ^
able. Depressed by the hopelessness of the Whig cause
in Illinois, and carried away by his jealousy of Douglas,
he descended to a tone unworthy of himself or of the
occasion. Referring to the Richmond address, he said : —
" This speech has been published with high commen-
dations in at least one of the Democratic papers in this
State, and I suppose it has been and will be in most of
the others. When I first saw it and read it, I was re-
minded of old times, when Judge Douglas was not so
much greater man than all the rest of us, as he is now, —
of the Harrison campaign twelve years ago, when I used
to hear and try to answer many of his speeches ; and
believing that the Richmond speech, though marked with
the same species of ' shirks and quirks ' as the old ones,
was not marked with any greater ability, — I was seized
with a strange inclination to attempt an answer to it;
and this inclination it was that prompted me to seek the
privilege of addressing you on this occasion," ^
Like the speaker's one failure during that very Harri-
son campaign, this defeat — as his friends regarded it —
in the Pierce-Scott contest was destined to be followed
by brilliant victories. But not at once, for Douglas was
still rising toward the zenith of his power, and Lincoln's
hour had not yet struck.
The " Little Giant," as the admirers of the Senator
from Illinois fondly called him, had been a candidate, at
Baltimore, for the Democratic nomination to the presi-
dency, which had fallen, by way of compromise, to Frank-
86 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
lin Pierce. That gentleman owed his selection largely to
the bitterness of the struggle between the " Old Fogies,"
under such favorites as Cass, Marcy, and Buchanan, on
the one hand, and "Young America," championed by
Douglas, on the other. The youthful leader, though he
had not himself attained the prize, had been strong
enough to keep his powerful competitors from getting
it. Here was glory enough for a first attempt, and
Douglas emerged from the Convention still on the high-
road to the White House. That road had, for many years,
wound through the Southern States. It was dotted with
the headstones of presidential aspirants, who had fallen
beneath the slaveholder's whip ; but surely this adroit
politician, stepping off so firmly, would not fall. He ad-
vanced steadily enough while the growing differences
between North and South could be turned into the prim-
rote paths of compromise. Not only had the measures that
secured the so-called Compromise of 1850 his support, but
he had, at the same time, solemnly reaffirmed the great
Missouri Compromise itself. "It had its origin," said he,
*'in the hearts of all patriotic men, who desired to pre-
serve and perpetuate the blessings of our glorious Union
— an origin akin to that of the Constitution of the United
States, conceived in the same spirit of fraternal affection,
and calculated to remove forever the danger which seemed
to threaten, at some distant day, to sever the social bond
of union. All the evidences of public opinion, at that day,
seemed to indicate that this Compromise had been canon-
ized in the hearts of the American people, as a sacred thing
which no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to
disturb." * Yet, within somewhat over four years, the
speaker himself, of all men in the world, was guilty of
that sacrilege.^" At the command of the South, his own
hand violated the hallowed instrument. The Compromise
had served its turn — at least for the Slave States. Having
enjoyed the benefits allotted to them by the compact, they
viewed with alarm the prospect that the Free States were
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 87
about to come into their share of it. This was to be pre-
vented at all hazards. The lash cracked above the head
of Douglas. He promptly responded, in his Kansas-
Nebraska Bill, with the fateful amendment which declared
the slavery restrictions of the Compromise "inoperative
and void."
The storm of indignation, aroused in the North by the
passage of the bill, swept its author home in the autumn
of 1854 to defend himself before his constituents." The
people of Chicago, whom he first tried to address, gath-
ered in an angry multitude and refused to hear him ; ^^
but elsewhere throughout the State, in the so-called Anti-
Nebraska as well as in the Nebraska districts, his popu-
larity secured to him large and respectful audiences.
This tour was ostensibly in the interests of the party's
State and Congressional tickets. In reality, however, it
involved a strenuous bid for the endorsement of Dougflas
himself. His colleague. General Shields, who had sup-
ported him in the Senate, was to stand for reelection
before the next legislature. Hence the votes about to be
cast, particularly those for members of that body, would
afford the best immediate test as to whether or not he of
the " ruthless hand " was sustained by the people.
With all his wonted skill and energy, Douglas threw
himself into the struggle. Improving the opportunity
offered by the large gathering of voters and politicians, at
the State Agricultural Fair, in Springfield, he presented
himself at the capitol, on the opening day, and made a
speech. Like most of his utterances, it was specious but
attractive. To answer it effectually would require ability of
no mean order, and, as if by common consent of the several
Anti-Nebraska elements, the task was assigned to his old
antagonist, Abraham Lincoln. This selection appears, in
fact, to have been made before Douglas had sjDoken. " I
will mention," said the Senator in his opening remarks to
the audience which crowded the hall of the State House,
" that it is understood by some gentlemen that Mr. Lin-
88 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
coin, of this city, is expected to answer me. If this is the
understanding, I wish that Mr. Lincoln would step for-
ward and let us arrange some plan upon which to carry
out this discussion." ^^ Mr. Lincoln, as he happened to
be absent at the moment, did not step forward then ; but,
on the following day, in the same place and before an
equally large assemblage, he took a step forward that must
have galled the great man's kibe. Aroused by the moral,
no less than by the political obliquity of Douglas's course,
Lincoln arose above the petty personalities which had dis-
figured his Scott Club address, and delivered a speech that
evoked the praise of even the Senator's supporters. Doug-
las himself, as his frequent interruptions of the speaker
indicated, was greatly disconcerted by the unexpected
sweep and strength of the reply. Moreover, in his excite-
ment and anger, the two hours before supper-time left
to him for rejoinder were occupied to so little purpose
that he closed with a promise to resume in the evening.
Evening came and so did the audience, but not the "Little
Giant." Whether he had tumbled into one of the seven-
league boots that was putting a comfortable distance be-
tween him and the big giant, contemporary history saith
not. It does relate that when he failed to return, his dis-
appointed auditors drew the inevitable conclusion — and
so may we.^*
That the Senator should retrieve, unopposed, in other
parts of the State, the ground he had lost in Springfield,
was of course not on the program of the Anti-Nebraska
leaders. They urged Lincoln to follow Douglas until,
as one of them expressed it, he " ran him into a hole or
made him halloo, ' Enough ! ' " Their champion was eager
enough for pursuit, but to the " Little Giant," the pros-
pect of continuing the combat had " no relish of salvation
in 't." Douglas was cordial to his opponent when they
met, a few days later, in Bloomington ; but as soon as
further debates were suggested, he became greatly irri-
tated. " It looks to me," said he to Jesse W. Fell, who
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 89
had made the proposition, " like dogging a man all over
the State. If Mr. Lincoln wants to make a speech, he
had better get a crowd of his own ; for I most respectfully
decline to hold a discussion with him." ^^ To persist in
this refusal, among a people whose rude sense of chivalry-
still delighted in the test of man to man, would have cost
Douglas much of his hard-earned prestige. So we find
him, twelve days after the Springfield debate, again shar-
ing the platform with Lincoln — this time, in Peoria.
Here, as at the Capital, the Whig's ambition to address
large audiences — we say nothing of his confidence in his
powers — led him to be content with one speech, while
the Democrat had two, the opening and the close. Con-
cerning this arrangement Lincoln quaintly said in his
introduction : —
" I doubt not but you have been a little surprised to
learn that I have consented to give one of his high reputa-
tion and known ability this advantage of me. Indeed, my
consenting to it, though reluctant, was not wholly unself-
ish, for I suspected, if it were understood that the Judge
was entirely done, you Democrats would leave and not
hear me ; but by giving him the close, I felt confident
you would stay for the fun of hearing him skin me." ^^
But it proved, as they say in the East, to be " the other
way round." Douglas got the flaying, and no one realized
this more keenly than he himself. Going to his antago-
nist, after the meeting, — so one story runs, — he said :
" Lincoln, you understand this question of prohibiting
slavery in the Territories better than all the opposition in
the Senate of the United States. I cannot make anything
by debating it with you. You, Lincoln, have here and at
Springfield given me more trouble than all the opposition
in the Senate combined." ^^
Then, throwing himself upon the other's magnanimity,
he begged him to discontinue the pursuit. According to
another tale, Douglas made a feigned illness the ground
for his request.^^ At all events, the Senator's discomfiture,
90 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
whether mental or physical, disarmed Lincoln. He granted
the truce proposed by Douglas — both to abandon the field
and to return to their respective homes. Accordingly,
when, on the following day, they arrived at Lacon, where
the next debate was to take place, Douglas excused him-
self from speaking, on the ground of hoarseness, and Lin-
coln declined to take advantage of his " indisposition."
Thereupon, they separated, Lincoln going directly home,
as had been agreed ; but Douglas stopped at Princeton,
where a chance meeting with Owen Love joy betrayed him
into a violation of the compact.^^ This breach of faith
should be borne in mind by him who would comprehend
the characters of these adversaries ; yet the little great
man in retreat and crying, " Hold, enough ! " while the big
one stays his hand, is a still more significant spectacle.
The election that ensued was virtually a defeat for
Douglas.^*' He beheld the majority by which he had twice
been sent to the United States Senate crumble away ; and
when, during the following winter, the new legislature
met in joint session to elect General Shields's successor,
the choice lay in the hands of the Anti-Nebraska members.
Their favorite, consistently enough, was Lincoln.^^ The
champion who had so neatly unhorsed the Nebraska man,
himself, on the local field, should have been granted his
desire — so thought most of them — to continue the fight,
in the national arena. Five of their number, however, as
pronounced in their Democracy as in their opposition to
Douglas, could not bring themselves to vote for a Whig.
They supported Lyman Trumbull, while the Douglas Dem-
ocrats voted first for Shields and then for Governor Joel
A. Matteson.^^ After a number of ballots with varying
but indecisive results, when Matteson's election became
imminent, Lincoln directed his followers to unite upon
Trumbull, who thus won the day. The new Senator,
though in times gone by a political opponent of the Whig
leader, now agreed with him in uncompromising antago-
nism toward Douglas and his Kansas-Nebraska legislation.
I
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 91
That was enough for Lincoln. If he himself might not
follow Douglas into the Senate, the keen edge of his dis-
appointment was tempered by the consolation of sending,
in his stead, a David who was even less welcome than he
to the diminutive Goliath.^^ Indeed, no sooner had the
brilliant Trumbull taken his seat than he opened the at-
tack that gave Douglas so much trouble ; and throughout
the stormy sessions which followed, the senior Senator
from Illinois was sure to find his colleague in the van of
his enemies — a constant reminder of that other inveterate
opponent at home.
Busy as Lincoln was at the bar during the next few
years, no move of the Democratic leader escaped his
attention. When Douglas, still bidding for the presiden-
tial nomination that had twice slipped through his fin-
gers, cast a defence of the Dred Scott decision into the
southern scale beside the repeal of the Compromise,
the speech did not long remain unanswered by his vigilant
critic. Both addresses were made in Springfield, during
June, 1857. At the time, the Senator's term had almost
two years still to run, yet Lincoln's fancy appears to have
carried him for a moment away from the important issues
under discussion ^^ to the day when Douglas could again
be brought to book. Said he : —
" Three years and a half ago. Judge Douglas brought
forward his famous Nebraska Bill. The country was at
once in a blaae. He scorned all opposition, and carried it
through Congress. Since then he has seen himself super-
seded in a presidential nomination by one indorsing the
general doctrine of his measure, but at the same time stand-
ing clear of the odium of its untimely agitation and its gross
breach of national faith ; and he has seen that successful
rival constitutionally elected, not by the strength of friends,
but by the division of adversaries, being in a popular
minority of nearly four hundred thousand votes.^ He has
seen his chief aids in his own State, Shields and Richard-
son, politically speaking, successively tried, convicted, and
92 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
executed for an offence not their own, but his.^^ And now
he sees his own case standing next on the docket for
trial." 27
The speaker might have added that when the trial took
place, he hoped to conduct the prosecution.
Douglas gauged the full measure of his peril. He
needed no Lincoln to point out that the Democracy of
Illinois would not follow even his lead into the slave-
holders' camp. And, if he should fail to carry his own
State, what support could he expect from his party
throughout the nation ? At the same time, that party, or
rather the dominating faction thereof, was committing it-
self more unreservedly, at every step, to the slavery cause.
In this dilemma, Douglas seized the horn that presented
itself first. He determined to preserve, above all things,
tis leadership at home, and, thus strengthened, to maintain
it thereafter, as best, he might, abroad. To accomplish the
one purpose, without entirely losing sight of the other,
he devised a straddle — " the great principle," as he called
it, " of popular sovereignty." According to this doctrine,
the people of a State or a Territory were free to have
slavery or not as they might choose. Of course such a
choice, so far as it would operate to exclude slavery from
the Territories, was virtually barred by the Dred Scott
decision, of which Douglas had warmly approved ; but the
inconsistency of his attitude gave him no concern, as long
as it left him, like Hosea Biglow's " satty's factory " can-
didate, " frontin' South by North." That is to say, fairly
on the track to the Senate, in 1858, and not turned too
far away from the road that might lead to the White
House, in 1860. When, in the winter of 1857-58, however.
President Buchanan and other Democratic leaders sought
to obtain the admission of Kansas into the Union, with a
pro-slavery constitution that had not been properly sub-
mitted to the people of the Territory, Douglas found him-
self at the parting of the ways. Support of the scheme
involved the surrender of " popular sovereignty," and his
GIANTS, BIG AND LIITLE 93
political ruin in Illinois, as well as in the other Northern
States ; opposition to it threatened similar disaster for
his hopes in the South. With prompt decision, he took
his stand against the President. Whereupon ensued the
bitter struggle over Kansas that for a brief hour revealed
Douglas at his best. To tell how brilliantly he fought in
the Senate, for " the great principle," how manfully he
bore himself under the heavy hand of the administration,
how courageously he braved the abuse of old friends,
and with what dignity he received the praise of lifelong
enemies, would take us off the line of our narrative. Yet
all this came near to having an important bearing on the
fortunes of that particular enemy with whom we are most
concerned.
Lincoln, as election time drew near, saw with chagrin
not only that Douglas had recovered his popularity among
northern Democrats, but that some of the most influential
of the Eepublicans, also, began to regard him with favor.
Such leaders of the new party as Greeley, Bowles, Wilson,
Colfax, Banks, Burlingame, and Blair, dazzled by the
hope of gaining so powerful an ally, counseled the Illinois
Republicans to unite with the Douglas Democrats in
returning him to the Senate.^ This alliance would have
committed the anti-slavery cause, in an important State,
to the keeping of a politician who, to use his own phrase,
cared not whether slavery was " voted down or voted up,"
and whose entire career, notwithstanding his course in
the Kansas affair, should have rendered him an object of
distrust to the Kepublican Party. ^^ Its aid of Douglas,
moreover, at the time, would have involved the gross
betrayal of its own local leader ; for Lincoln's sacrifices
— to say nothing of his ability and his services — entitled
his candidacy to the undivided support of his party. That
this support should, even for a moment, be disputed with
him by one against whom he and most of his followers had,
all their lives, been arrayed, is its own commentary on the
adroitness of Douglas.^^ So real seemed the danger that
94 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Lincoln became greatly troubled. He was particularly dis-
turbed over the course pursued by the editor of the New
York Tribune. " I think Greeley," said he to his partner,
Mr. Herndon, " is not doing me right. His conduct, I
believe, savors a little of injustice. I am a true Republi-
can and have been tried already in the hottest part of the
anti-slavery fight, and yet I find him taking up Douglas,
a veritable dodger, — once a tool of the South, now its
enemy, — and pushing him to the front. He forgets that
when he does that he pulls me down at the same time.
I fear Greeley's attitude will damage me with Sumner,
Seward, Wilson, Phillips, and other friends in the East." ^^
Thereupon the faithful Herndon hastily journeyed toward
the seaboard to reclaim the wise men of the East from
following a misleading star. His mission was not entirely
successful, for he found some of them wandering in a haze
of expediency which all his earnest pleas in behalf of prin-
ciple failed to dispel. Meanwhile, however, the atmosphere
was clearing at home. Illinois Republicans could not bring
themselves to "place any reliance," as Seward expressed
it, " on a man so slippery as Douglas," and when their
State Convention met at Springfield, on the 16th of June,
1858, they formally declared for the man on whom they
could rely. Amidst great enthusiasm, and without a dis-
senting voice, was passed the resolution : —
" That Hon. Abraham Lincoln is our first and only
choice for United States Senator to fill the vacancy about
to be created by the expiration of Mr. Douglas's term of
office." 32
As Douglas had, with equal unanimity, been endorsed,
though not actually nominated, eight weeks before, by the
Democratic Convention, the two men now, for the first
time in the course of their long rivalry, faced each other
to do battle for the same high office.
With characteristic eagerness, Lincoln lost no time
in beginning the contest. The evening of the day on
which his nomination had been made, he addressed the
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 95
Convention in the speech which has since become famous
because of its radical development of the text, " A house
divided against itself cannot stand." But what at this
moment interests us more than the issues under discussion
is the fact that the speaker devoted most of his attention
to his opponent, in person. Douglas subservient to the
slave-owners, or Douglas in revolt against them, was pic-
tured alike unworthy of northern confidence. Moreover,
his recently acquired popularity among the Republicans,
though it had signally failed to influence the Convention,
appears still to have worried Lincoln. " There are those,"
said he, after speaking of the party's ambition to over-
throw the southern regime, " who denounce us openly to
their own friends, and yet whisper us softly that Senator
Douglas is the aptest instrument there is with which
to effect that object. They wish us to infer all from the
fact that he now has a little quarrel with the present head
of the dynasty, and that he has regularly voted with us
on a single point upon which he and we have never dif-
fered. They remind us that he is a great man, and that
the largest of us are very small ones. Let this be granted.
But 'a living dog is better than a dead lion.' Judge
Douglas, if not a dead lion for this work, is at least a
caged and toothless one." ^
A lion, indeed, but not of the sort described by Lincoln,
did the people, three weeks later, make of the Democratic
leader. Returning home to Chicago, with the glory of
his gallant fight against the administration still fresh
about him, he opened his canvass there on the evening
of July 9, at a magnificent public reception. The speech
made by the Senator on that occasion, from a balcony of
the Tremont House, was a vigorous reply to Lincoln, of
whom, in the flush of his pride, he spoke patronizingly
as " a kind, amiable, and intelligent gentleman." ^* The
speaker might have added " alert " to this catalogue of
good qualities, for Lincoln was present at the meeting, and
when Douglas had concluded, he announced, in answer
^6 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
to calls for a speech, that he would reply from the same
place, on the following evening. At the time a^^pointed
the audience for the most part returned, but Douglas,
not deigning to do so, went to a theatre instead. When
he spoke in Bloomington, on the 16th of July, Lincoln
was again a watchful auditor, and the Senator's speech
in Springfield, the next day, was followed, within a few
hours, by his opponent's rejoinder to the Bloomington
address.^ This continued, meeting after meeting. Yet,
however closely Lincoln pressed Douglas, it soon be-
came evident that the " Little Giant," with his plausible
oratory and cleverly managed campaign machinery, had
made the better start. Then Lincoln, recalling his old
tactics at close quarters, challenged Douglas to a series
of debates. In response, the latter, having accepted the
proposition, stipulated that there were to be seven meet-
ings, at places and on dates specified by him,^^ The terms,
as further laid down by Douglas, gave him the advantage
of opening and closing the series, of speaking eleven times
to his antagonist's ten, and of having four openings and
closes to Lincoln's three. That " amiable gentleman,"
however, was not entirely a stranger, as we have seen, to
the idea of giving the great man odds, so he promptly
accepted the condition s.^^
What manner of man Stephen A. Douglas had become
since those primitive Vandalia days, when he started with
Lincoln in the race for political fame and fortune, is wor-
thy of notice at this, a critical point in their course. The
slight, boyish figure which, in 1834, had struck the big-
boned young member from Sangamon as that of " the
least man " in his experience, though no taller by 1858,
had materially developed otherwise. A sturdy, thick-set
frame, with broad shoulders and deep chest, gave evi-
dence of physical vigor as clearly as the massive head,
high forehead, flashing blue eyes, and firm, expressive
mouth indicated intellectual strength. Whatever the
shrewd, bold mind might plan, the body, with its ex-
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 97
traordinary energy and powers of endurance, could evi-
dently be relied on to carry out. Thus doubly fortified
by nature, Douglas was an opponent to compel respect.
Moreover, the remarkable public career which had borne
him, while still young, from unfriended obscurity to the
leadership of a great party, may be said to have schooled
him in all the arts and accomplishments that make such
a man formidable. With an exhaustive knowledge of our
political history, and a grasp no less comprehensive of
the problems that arise in party management, was com-
bined an insight, well-nigh precise, into the shifting cur-
rents of popular favor. This store of wisdom was paral-
leled by the skill with which it was applied. No obstacle
was long suffered to obstruct Douglas's progress. Ques-
tions of principle, of measures, and of men were all
weigrhed alike in the balance of an ambition as inordinate
as it was selfish. Yet, so artfully did he manage, that
people, mistaking the self-seeking politician for the patri-
otic statesman, crowned him with successive honors.
A member of the Illinois legislature at the age of 23,
State Supreme Court Judge at 28, Congressman at 30,
United States Senator at 34, and a powerfully supported
candidate for presidential nomination at the uncommonly
youthful age of 39, Douglas was generally acknowledged,
even some years before the period at which we have arrived,
to be the ablest, as well as the most cherished, of the
Democratic leaders. Indeed, a considerable element in the
party looked for guidance to him, and to him alone.
Through fair weather and foul it had clung to the man
with a devotion that has not been surpassed in the history
of the organization. For Douglas knew, as possibly but
one other American ever did, how to captivate at once the
heads and the hearts of the young men. They admired his
sagacity, dash, fearlessness, and indomitable will ; they
loved him for the ardent, sunny temperament that mani-
fested itself with equal readiness in a warm greeting or a
personal service, in the reckless expenditure of his means,
98 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
or in the good-fellowship of a convivial circle ; but above
all they exulted, as did many of their elders, over the.
power of his eloquence. Douglas was an orator by nature.
He owed little or nothing of his triumphs in the Senate and
on the stump to scholarship. Discarding humor, flights
of fancy, and rhetorical ornament generally, he carried
his hearers whithersoever he would on the flood of his
earnest logic. A flexible voice, suited to his terse, vigorous
English, and a manner which seemed to stamp every word
as the utterance of an oracle, imparted to what he said all
the force of which the statement was capable. Even the
most audacious sophisms or perversions of fact — for
Douglas never hesitated at either — owed a certain plau-
sibility to this impressive delivery. It was in running
discussion, however, rather than in the making of a formal
speech — in spontaneous declamation, passionate invec-
tive, and impromptu reply, that he particularly excelled.
Quick to seize upon the weakness in an opponent's argu-
ment, adroit at making the most of the strength in his
own, expert in all the wiles and stratagems of controversy,
unscrupulous about employing them to confound an
adversary or mislead his hearers, he was conceded to be
the best off-hand debater in the Senate during one of its
brilliant epochs. The Upper House at the time held not
a few orators who wrote their drafts on the bank of elo-
quence for larger amounts than Douglas could ; but the
flushest of them lacked so much ready change as he had
always about him. His encounters with Sumner, Seward,
Chase, Everett, Crittenden, Trumbull, Fessenden, Hale,
Wilson, as well as other parliamentarians of their class,
whether he met them singly or sustained an assault in
force, had gained for him an almost unbroken record of
forensic victories. These achievements had fixed the
attention of the nation upon him as upon no other poli-
tician of the day. Small wonder that a man of his caliber
grew arrogant. Recognizing no will but his own, he came
to look upon opposition of any kind with ill-controlled
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 99
passion. If to all this, finally, is added that twelve years
in the Senate had led him to regard his seat as peculiarly
his own, we may form some conception of what Lincoln
undertook when, in the summer of 1858, he challenged
Douglas to debate for the place.
No one realized to what heights Douglas had climbed
more clearly than he who had pursued him so persistently.
Lincoln's admission, not long before, of how wide a gap
lay between them, makes a pathetic contrast to his dis-
paragements of former days. "Twenty-two years ago,'
said he, " Judge Douglas and I first became acquainted.
We were both young then — he a trifle younger than I.
Even then we were both ambitious — I, perhaps quite
as much as he. With me, the race of ambition has been
a failure — a flat failure ; with him, it has been one of
splendid success. His name fills the nation, and is not
unknown even in foreign lands. I affect no contempt for
the high eminence he has reached. So reached that the
oppressed of my species might have shared with me in the
elevation, I would rather stand on that eminence than wear
the richest crown that ever pressed a monarch's brow."^
In an entirely different vein, though not less forcibly, Lin-
coln pointed out, at the beginning of the canvass, some
of Douglas's further advantages over him. Said he : —
" Senator Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the
anxious politicians of his party, or who have been of his
party for years past, have been looking upon him as cer-
tainly, at no distant day, to be the President of the United
States. They have seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face,
post-offices, land-offices, marshalships, and cabinet appoint-
ments, chargeships, and foreign missions, bursting and
sprouting out in wonderful exuberance, ready to be laid
hold of by their greedy hands. And as they have been
gazing upon this attractive picture so long, they cannot,
in the little distraction that has taken place in the party,
bring themselves to give up the charming hope ; but
with greedier anxiety they rush about him, sustain him,
loo LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
and give him marches, triumphal entries, and receptions
beyond what even in the days of his highest prosperity
they could have brought about in his favor. On the con-
trary, nobody has ever expected me to be President. In
my poor, lean, lank face, nobody has ever seen that any
cabbages were sprouting out. These are disadvantages
all, taken together, that the Republicans labor under.
We have to fight this battle upon principle, and upon
principle alone." ^
Whether much principle, by the way, could be intro-
duced into a conflict with Douglas, the speaker, after
twenty odd years of campaigning against him, was still
in grave doubt. Having sounded the depths and shallows
of his character, Lincoln had learned that when Douglas
swore upon his honor — his political honor, at least — he
was, as Master Touchstone might have said, not forsworn.
Lincoln also knew how subtly this moral laxness wound,
like a black thread, through the man's comings and
goings ; and how, in the stress of debate, sophistry, trick-
ery, even falsehood were employed to establish his own
position, or hopelessly to befog that of his opponent. It
was in reference to this line of conduct that Lincoln once
said : —
"Judge Douglas is playing cuttlefish, a small species
of fish that has no mode of defending itself, when pur-
sued, except by throwing out a black fluid, which makes
the water so dark the enemy cannot see it, and thus it
escapes."
Speaking, on another occasion, of the Judge's more
dangerous qualities, he said : —
" It is impossible to get the advantage of him. Even
if he is worsted, he so bears himself that the people are
bewildered and uncertain as to who has the better of it." *''
The impossible, then, is what Lincoln was about to under-
take.
As for Douglas, his ostentatious air of confidence in him-
self and his patronizing bearing toward Lincoln, on the
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE loi
stump, hardly manifested his real attitude. Upon receiv-
ing, at the Capital, a despatch, announcing that his old
opponent had been chosen to run against him for the
Senate, he had said to the group of Republican repre-
sentatives gathered about him to hear it read : —
" Well, gentlemen, you have nominated a very able and
a very honest man." ^^
A more emphatic, if not so dignified, form of the com-
ment was that in which it had been expressed, privately,
on several occasions : —
" Of all the damned Whig rascals about Springfield,
Abe Lincoln is the ablest and most honest." *^
Discussing the nominee with John W. Forney, Douglas
had observed : —
" I shall have my hands full. He is the strong man of
his party — full of wit, facts, dates — and the best stump-
speaker, with his droll ways and dry jokes, in the West.
He is as honest as he is shrewd ; and if I beat him, my
victory will be hardly won." *^
In view of these opinions and of the previous encoun-
ters upon which they were based, it is not surprising that
Douglas was loath now, even more than four years before,
to meet Lincoln in debate. When the challenge was
received, the Democratic leader said to certain of his
political friends : —
" I do not feel, between you and me, that I want to go
into this debate. The whole country knows me and has
me measured. Lincoln, as regards myself, is compara-
tively unknown,** and if he gets the best of this debate, —
and I want to say he is the ablest man the Republi-
cans have got, — I shall lose everything and Lincoln will
gain everything. Should I win, I shall gain but little. I
do not want to go into a debate with Abe." *^
Moreover, after agreeing to the proposed meetings —
for there was no escape from them in 1858, any more
than there had been in 1854 — he declared to some of his
supporters who spoke slightingly of his antagonist : —
I02 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
"Gentlemen, you do not know Mr. Lincoln. I have
known him long and well, and I know that I shall have
anything but an easy task. I assure you I would rather
meet any other man in the country, in this joint-debate,
than Abraham Lincoln." *^
Whatever disquietude Douglas manifested, in these
few instances, was not shared by his followers. Looking
forward to the contest with assurance of success, they set
no bounds, as was their wont, to partisan enthusiasm.
Amidst their noisy demonstrations were heard boasts that
Douglas would " use up and utterly demolish " Lincoln,
that the country would shortly be treated to the specta-
cle of "the Little Giant chawing up Old Abe," and
the like.^^ These things naturally cast a damper over
Lincoln's friends. Somewhat disheartened, at the outset,
by the prestige of Douglas's brilliant career, as well as
by his unquestioned ability, they came to regard the ap-
proaching trial of strength with forebodings that were
poorly concealed from their champion himself. He was,
in fact, keenly alive to this lack of confidence. It showed
itself in the comments of the Republican press, no less
than in the talk of his supporters. One of them, Judge
H. W. Beckwith of Danville, happened to greet him, on
the street in Springfield, shortly before the first meeting.
Inquiry as to the state of things in Vermilion County
evoked the statement by the Judge that the leader's
friends there awaited the coming debate with deep con-
cern. This appeared to move Lincoln. The pained expres-
sion that passed over his face, however, quickly gave
place to one of resolution. Then, in his half-serious, half-
jocular way, he said, as he seated himself upon the steps
of the Chenery House, before which they stood : —
" Sit down. I have a moment to spare and will tell
you a story. You have seen two men about to fight?"
" Yes, many times."
" Well, one of them brags about what he means to do.
He jumps high in the air, cracking his heels together,
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 103
smites his fists, and wastes his breath trying to scare some-
body. You see the other fellow, he says not a word " —
here the speaker became very earnest and repeated, " you
see the other man says not a word. His arms are at his
side, his fists are closely doubled up, his head is drawn to
the shoulder, and his teeth are set firm together. He is
saving his wind for the fight, and as sure as it comes off
he will win it, or die a-trying." ^
There spoke the victor of Clary's Grove. He had
learned that the principles of mastery do not vary, whether
they are applied to a backwoods scuffle or a great political
controversy.
The Lincoln-Douglas debates, as they are called, were
the most remarkable exhibitions of their kind in the his-
tory of the country. Never before nor since have two of
its citizens engaged in a series of public discussions which
involved questions of equal importance. Personal and
purely local differences were overshadowed, from the very
beginning, by what the disputants had to say on issues so
momentous that they were destined, within a few years, to
plunge the country into civil war. Lincoln, accordingly,
did not greatly exaggerate when he spoke, at Quincy, of
the seven meetings as " the successive acts of a drama to
be enacted not merely in the face of audiences like this,
but in the face of the nation and, to some extent, in the
face of the world." *^ To reconstruct these stirring scenes,
in pen pictures, almost half a century after the curtain
was rung down, is as much beyond our power as to do
justice by the actors, in any summary of their speeches.
Only a careful reading of the 263 pages in which the
debates have been preserved will convey an adequate idea
of how brilliantly, from the intellectual point of view, both
conducted themselves. Now Douglas apj)ears to prevail,
now Lincoln. One page persuades us that slavery is
constitutional, and that each commonwealth should be
allowed to have " the institution," or not, as it elects.
We turn the leaf, and lo ! we are convinced that slavery
I04 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
is wrong, and ought, at least, to be restricted. The ques-
tions at issue in the debates, however, — their morals
and their politics, — lie beyond the scope of our present
inquiry. Look we then to the debaters themselves.
The jaunty manner in which Douglas had talked
down to Lincoln, at the commencement of the canvass,
in Chicago, had not left him when he opened the joint-
meetings, in Ottawa. At some of the intervening Demo-
cratic rallies, he had, it is true, so far forgotten himself
as to indulge in violent utterances against his opponent ;
but when they stood face to face again, he patted him on
the back, as before.^" And the caress was not the less
gentle because it came between blows aimed at Lincoln's
political record. Said Douglas : —
" In the remarks I have made on this platform, and
the position of Mr. Lincoln upon it, I mean nothing per-
sonally disrespectful or unkind to that gentleman. I
have known him for nearly twenty-five years. There were
many points of sympathy between us when we first got
acquainted. We were both comparatively boys, and both
struggling with poverty in a strange land. I was a school-
teacher in the town of Winchester, and he a flourishing
grocery-keeper in the town of Salem. He was more suc-
cessful in his occupation than I was in mine, and hence
more fortunate in this world's goods. Lincoln is one of
those peculiar men who perform with admirable skill
everything which they undertake. I made as good a
school-teacher as I could, and when a cabinet-maker I
made a good bedstead and tables, although my old boss
said I succeeded better with bureaus and secretaries than
with anything else ; but I believe that Lincoln was always
more successful in business than I, for his business enabled
him to get into the legislature. I met him there, however,
and had sympathy with him, because of the uphill strug-
gle we both had in life. He was then just as good at
telling an anecdote as now. He could beat any of the
boys wrestling, or running a foot-race, in pitching quoits,
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 105
or tossing a copper ; could ruin more liquor than all the
boys of the town together, and the dignity and impartiality
with which he presided at a horse-race or fist-fight excited
the admiration and won the praise of everybody that was
present and participated. I sympathized with him because
he was struggling with difficulties, and so was I. Mr. Lin-
coln served with me in the legislature in 1836, when we
both retired, and he subsided, or became submerged, and he
was lost sight of as a public man for some years. In 1846,
when Wilmot introduced his celebrated proviso and the
Abolition tornado swept over the country, Lincoln again
turned up as a member of Congress from the Sangamon
district. I was then in the Senate of the United States,
and was glad to welcome my old friend and companion." ^^
But the "old friend and companion," when he arose to
reply, was in no mood for compliments. A bit of sarcasm
was his only reference to the other's patronage.
"As the judge had complimented me," said he, "with
these pleasant titles (I must confess to my weakness), I
was a little ' taken,' for it came from a great man. I was
not very much accustomed to flattery, and it came the
sweeter to me. I was rather like the Hoosier with the
gingerbread, when he said he reckoned he loved it better
than any other man, and got less of it. As the Judge had
so flattered me, I could not make up my mind that he
meant to deal unfairly with me." ^^
It was a matter of fact, however, that Douglas had
throughout, with the artfulness in which he knew no peer,
so misrepresented Lincoln's career and misstated his
principles as to place him almost entirely on the defen-
sive. Purely defensive tactics, whether in physical or
intellectual contests, rarely succeed. Hence the advan-
tage, as the first debate closed, appeared to rest with the
" Little Giant." Lincoln's speech, it is true, had been
received with enthusiasm, and, as he left the platform, his
excited supporters, lifting him upon their shoulders, had
carried him, with songs and huzzas, to the place where he
io6 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
was to spend the night. Still, this happened in a Repub-
lican district, and his well-wishers elsewhere, as they read
the report of the discussion in cold type, might with
reason have renewed their fears for the result.
There was a change in the situation when next the
champions met — at Freeport. Here Lincoln assumed the
offensive, and thenceforth, to the end of the series, he fre-
quently forced the fighting. Coolly parrying his antag-
onist's most dangerous blows, he countered with a force
under which the redoubtable Douglas sometimes reeled.
That gentleman's air of superiority soon disappeared. The
pace became too hot for any such pretence. All his re-
markable dialectic powers were called into play to com-
bat a logic keener than his own and a straightforward
persistence of purpose that no artifice could turn aside.
When his sophisms were confuted and his untruths
exposed, he had a way of introducing them over and over
again in bewildering guises. Not Proteus himself took
so many shapes before he gave up the truth. Nor was the
little old man of the sea enmeshed, at last, in his fetters,
more securely than was the " Little Giant " in the chain
of reasoning that Lincoln so deftly wound around him.
Twist and turn how he would, Douglas could not extri-
cate himself. Losing his temper as he lost ground, he fell
upon his adversary with personalities which the latter was
not slow to return in kind. Then Douglas protested.
" Does Mr. Lincoln," said he at Galesburg, " wish to
push these things to the point of personal difficulties
here ? I commenced this contest by treating him courte-
ously and kindly; I always spoke of him in words of
respect, and in return' he has sought, and is now seeking,
to divert public attention from the enormity of his revo-
lutionary principles by impeaching men's sincerity and
integrity, and inviting personal quarrels." ^^
To which Lincoln replied : —
" I do not understand but what he impeaches my honor,
my veracity, and my candor ; and because he does this,
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 107
I do not understand that I am bound, if I see a truthful
ground for it, to keep my hands off of him. As soon as I
learned that Judge Douglas was disposed to treat me in
this way, I signified in one of my speeches that I should
be driven to draw upon whatever of humble resources I
might have — to adopt a new course with him. I was not
entirely sure that I should be able to hold my own with
him, but I at least had the purpose made to do as well as
I could upon him ; and now I say that I will not be the
first to cry, ' Hold ! ' I think it originated with the Judge,
and when he quits, I probably will. But I shaU not ask
any favors at all. He asks me, or he asks the audience, if
I wish to push this matter to the point of personal diffi-
culty. I tell him. No. He did not make a mistake in one
of his early speeches, when he called me an ' amiable '
man, though perhaps he did when he called me an ' intel-
ligent' man. It really hurts me very much to suppose
that I have wronged anybody on earth. I again tell him,
No. I very much prefer, when this canvass shall be over,
however it may result, that we at least part without any
bitter recollections of personal difficulties. The Judge,
in his concluding speech at Galesburg, says that I was
pushing this matter to a personal difficulty to avoid the
responsibility for the enormity of my principles. I say to
the Judge and this audience now, that I will again state
our principles as well as I hastily can in all their enor-
mity, and if the Judge hereafter chooses to confine himself
to a war upon these principles, he will probably not find
me departing from the same course." ^*
This fairly indicates Lincoln's attitude. Thrice armed
in the justice of his position, he held it with equal vigor,
against argument or abuse, changing weapons as his ad-
versary changed his, and evincing no animosity, even
while he dealt the most telling strokes. His customary
humor was, however, to a large extent, noticeable for its
absence. When urged by his friends to introduce some
of his witty illustrations and amusing anecdotes, so that
io8 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
audiences might applaud him as often as they did Doug-
las, he refused, saying ; —
" The occasion is too serious. The issues are too grave.
I do not seek applause, or to amuse the people, but to
convince them." ^^
Moreover, beyond the cloud of local voters that envel-
oped the rude platforms in the Illinois clearings, he saw
what these friends and what Douglas himself too often
lost sight of, — the listening nation. To this larger forum
Lincoln addressed himself. He was eager enough for the
exalted office at stake ; but what appealed as much, if not
more, to his ambition, was the hope of overcoming his
ancient rival, in the eyes of the whole country.
One incident of the debates is, in this connection, of
particular interest. At the first meeting, Douglas chal-
lenged Lincoln to answer a series of seven interrogatories,
based on the slavery problem. They were shrewdly cal-
culated to entrap him into inconsistencies, or to elicit
expressions of radical doctrine for which the people at
large were hardly prepared. Lincoln did not formally
reply at once, but during the interval between that and
the following debate, he got ready a set of answers, re-
markable for their blending of adroitness and candor. At
the same time, as "questions" is a game that two can
play, he framed four interrogatories, designed, in their
turn, to embarrass Douglas. This was especially so of the
one which read : —
" Can the people of a United States Territory, in any
lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United
States, exclude slavery from its limits, prior to the forma-
tion of a State constitution ? " ^^
The question would bring the author of " popular sov-
ereignty " face to face with the irreconcilable contradiction
between his theory that the people of a Territory had the
right to exclude slavery, or not, as they wished, and his
defence of the Dred Scott decision, according to which
they had no such right. Was it wise, however, to give
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 109
Douglas this opportunity for patching up the defect In
his armor ? " No," said the Republican leaders, to whom
Lincoln submitted the questions, on the eve of the Free-
port meeting, — unanimously, "No." Douglas, they said
in effect, would not of his own accord, for fear of further
offending the South, touch upon the subject any more
than he found necessary. Consequently, his support of the
decision might be attacked to advantage. On the other
hand, argued they, if forced to give a categorical answer,
he will say, "Yes," adhere to "popular sovereignty," de-
clare that the decision is an abstract proposition depend-
ent for its force upon local legislation, and thus gain a
number of still doubtful votes."
" If he does that," said Lincoln, " he can never be
President."
" But," replied one of his friends, " he may be Sen-
ator."
" Perhaps," rejoined Lincoln ; "but I am after larger
game. The battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of this." ^
His anxious supporters labored with him to the last
moment before the debate opened, in the hope of persuad-
ing him to abandon that question. They protested, not
unreasonably, against jeopardizing the present canvass
for one that was two years distant ; but their candidate,
with the self-reliance that customarily followed his care-
ful study of a subject, persisted in his purpose.^^ When
the question was put, Douglas answered as had been pre-
dicted ; and how accurately the effects of that answer ^ had
been forecast by the questioner, we shall presently see.
Important as the debates were, they constituted but
a small part of this memorable canvass. To consider all
the elements that entered into the contest, and to credit
each with its precise bearing upon the result, would be
difficult, if not impossible. A number of speakers — as-
pirants for State offices and politicians generally — sup-
ported one or the other, as the case might be, of the
senatorial candidates. The advantage, in this respect,
no LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
owing to the eloquent aid of Trumbull, probably lay
with Lincoln. It is agreed, on the other hand, that cir-
cumstances favored Douglas, and that nothing did this to
so great an extent as the hostility of President Buchanan.
The administration party's effort to compass the Senator's
defeat, its nomination of a third State ticket to divide the
Democratic vote, its virulent attacks upon him in the
press, and its abuse of Federal patronage to punish his
supporters, served merely to close up the ranks of those
supporters, as they glorified the almost heroic courage
with which he fought Republicans in front, and Buchanan
Democrats in the rear. Moreover, the animosity of the
President and his pro-slavery adherents against Douglas
kept alive the sympathy of prominent Republicans, as
well as other anti-administration leaders, throughout the
country. They loved? the " Little Giant " — somewhat as
did those who cherished a nobler Democrat, of a later day
— for the enemies he had made, and their influence
brought him many times as many votes as Buchanan took.
Indeed, a single favorable letter, penned at a critical point
in the struggle, by Senator Crittenden of Kentucky,
turned the wavering scale in enough districts to ensure
the election of Douglas.^^
But what Douglas himself accomplished and how close
his competitor kept to him, through it all, are the strik-
ing features of the contest. From the midsummer evening
on which it was opened by the Democratic candidate, in
Chicago, to the night before election, when he tried, dur-
ing a chill November storm, to deliver his closing speech,
in that same city, Douglas made a fight as spirited as it
was able. Traversing the length and breadth of the State,
he spoke at all hours and places, regardless of weather
or personal fatigue. In the one hundred working days
between July 9 and November 2, he made, according to
his own statement, one hundred and thirty speeches.^^
This vigorous campaign frequently necessitated travel-
ing by night and speaking — for the most part, in the
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE iii
open air — several times on the same day ; but the attend-
ant hardships were alleviated, as much as could be, at
every turn. Luxuriously fitted special cars, filled usu-
ally with a retinue of friends, carried him to many of his
appointments, as one contemporary says, " like a conquer-
ing hero." ^ His approach was announced to the waiting-
crowds by salutes fired from cannon mounted on a plat-
form car, and by the music of a brass band. Processions,
banners, triumphal arches, decorations, receptions, ser-
enades, fireworks, and the boisterous enthusiasm of the
people — manufactured, when it failed to be spontaneous
— stimulated Douglas, as would indeed have been the
case with a man of weaker fiber, to strenuous exertion.
Drawing upon all his resources, material no less than
physical and intellectual, he cashed the obligations under
which so many rested, for political favors, into a large
campaign fund that was disbursed with a lavish hand.
His own contributions, leaving him deeply in debt, drained
his estate to the extent, it is said, of eighty thousand dol-
lars.^^ This sum and Lincoln's subscription of five hun-
dred dollars, or thereabouts, to the Republican fund, form
a contrast, typical of differences between the candidates
and their methods, that ran through the entire canvass.^
Neither enthusiasm nor the customary electioneering
devices were lacking among Lincoln's followers, but their
leader disliked " fizzlegigs and fireworks," to use his own
phrase, as much as his competitor desired them. While
the latter omitted no flourish that might gain a vote, the
former relied, as much as his managers would let him,
upon the stimip ; while the one was customarily driven
through a town in the most elegant carriage to be ob-
tained, the other was drawn about not infrequently on a
farm -wagon ; and, what was of the greatest importance,
while Douglas enjoyed the best railroad facilities that
money or influence could secure, Lincoln had to cover the
same ground as he did, with scant favor. " At all points
on the road where meetings between the two great poli-
112 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
ticians were held," relates Colonel Lamon, " either a
special train or a special car was furnished to Judge Doug-
las ; but Mr. Lincoln, when he failed to get transportation
on the regular trains, in time to meet his appointments,
was reduced to the necessity of going as freight. There
being orders from headquarters to permit no passenger
to travel on freight trains, Mr. Lincoln's persuasive
powers were often brought into requisition. The favor was
granted or refused according to the politics of the con-
ductor. On one occasion, in going to meet an appoint-
ment in the southern part of the State — that section of
Illinois called Egypt — Mr. Lincoln and I, with other
friends, were traveling in the ' caboose ' of a freight train,
when we were switched off the main track to allow a
special train to pass in which Mr. Lincoln's more aristo-
cratic rival was being conveyed. The passing train was
decorated with banners and flags, and carried a band
of music which was playing ' Hail to the Chief.' As
the train whistled past, Mr. Lincoln broke out in a fit
of laughter and said, ' Boys, the gentleman in that car
evidently smelt no royalty in our carriage.' " ^^
Another incident in point is recalled by Major Whit-
ney. " Lincoln and I," says he, " were at the Centralia
agricultural fair, the day after the debate at Jonesboro.
Night came on and we were tired, having been on the fair
grounds all day. We were to go north on the Illinois
Central Railroad. The train was due at midnight, and
the depot was full of people. I managed to get a chair
for Lincoln in the office of the Superintendent of the
railroad, but small politicians would intrude so that he
could scarcely get a moment's sleep. The train came and
was filled instantly. I got a seat near the door for Lincoln
and myself. He was worn out and had to meet Douglas
the next day at Charleston. An empty car, called a saloon
car, was hitched on to the rear of the train and locked up.
I asked the conductor, who knew Lincoln and myself
well, — we were both attorneys of the road, — if Lincoln
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 113
could not ride in that car ; that he was exhausted and
needed rest ; but the conductor refused. I afterwards got
him in by a stratagem. At the same time, George B.
McClellan in person [then Vice-President of the road]
was taking Douglas around in a special car and special
train ; and that was the unjust treatment Lincoln got
from the Illinois Central Railroad." ^^
Nevertheless, as the struggle drew to a close, the favored
candidate, vigorous as he was, almost succumbed to the
strain, and his voice became so hoarse that it was painful
to hear him. On the other hand, Lincoln, who, without
making so many speeches, had probably endured all that
Douglas had and more, appeared to be in prime condition.
His voice was as clear, his eye as bright, and his step as
firm as if he were about to begin, not to end, one of the
severest of political conflicts.
The election, which took place on November 2, re-
sulted in a virtual victory, but at the same time, an actual
defeat, for Lincoln. His party, making heavy gains over
its returns in 1856 when Buchanan carried Illinois, polled
the largest popular vote and elected its State ticket. The
Douglas men, however, profiting by inequalities in the ap-
portionment of legislative districts, as well as by the fact
that eight out of thirteen State Senators who held over
were Democrats, had a majority, on joint ballot, in the
legislature. When that body met in January, 1859, it
accordingly reelected Douglas.
Lincoln took his defeat as resignedly as could be ex-
pected. He was, as we have seen, not unprepared for such
a result ; yet this second check to his ambitions must have
borne hard upon a man who once said that he " would
rather have a full term in the Senate than in the Presi-
dency." ^ The courageous, hopeful letters written by him,
at about this time, do not — it is safe to say — reveal all
his emotions. He felt, as he quaintly told a sympathetic
friend, *' like the boy that stumped his toe. — It hurt
too bad to laugh and he was too big to cry." ^^ The toe
114 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
had, on this occasion, not been seriously injured, however,
for the big boy was still in the running with the little one.
Their names were thenceforward linked together in the
public mind. Those who had watched the contest atten-
tively agreed, for the most part, that Lincoln's failure had
been as brilliant as Douglas's success. While the Senator
had merely maintained the great prestige already estab-
lished by him, throughout the land, his comparatively un-
known opponent had leaped at one bound, as it were, into
a national reputation. Some observers, in fact, undazzled
by the Bengal lights of victory, recognized even then,
what later judgment has confirmed, that the foremost
campaigner of the Democracy had met his master.
After the conflict, Lincoln turned his attention again
to his somewhat neglected private affairs. Urgent though
these were, they did not — it is interesting to note — take
his thoughts from the doctrines that he had combated, or
from the man who had sought to uphold them. Douglas
and " Douglasism," to use Lincoln's own word, were still
at every turn the joint objects of his attacks. For, strange
to relate, he deemed it necessary to oppose the Democratic
leader anew, within, as well as outside of, the Republican
ranks. Some members of the party, notwithstanding what
the recent discussions had disclosed, persisted in the hope
that the organization might yet march to power under the
standard of the victorious Senator. Even a few of Lin-
coln's friends, for a brief period after his defeat, enter-
tained this idea ; but their leader — needless to say — lost
no opportunity to counteract it. " Let the Republican
Party of Illinois dally with Judge Douglas," said he,
speaking at Chicago, in the spring of 1859. " Let them
fall in behind him and make him their candidate, and
they do not absorb him — he absorbs them. They would
come out at the end all Douglas men, all claimed by him
as having endorsed every one of his doctrines upon the
great subject with which the whole nation is engaged at
this hour."^" As late as the midsummer of that year,
i
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 115
we find the speaker expressing uneasiness at seeing his
" friends, leaning toward ' popular sovereignty ' " and
toward its author, " the most dangerous enemy of Lib-
erty because the most insidious one." ^^ These warnings
were reenforced by the conduct of the Senator himself.
That wily politician, as soon as he had secured his reelec-
tion, turned toward the South to regain the pro-slavery
support which he had alienated at Freeport. His public
utterances, about this time, particularly the speeches made
on a southern tour that closely followed the debates, reveal
how disastrous, if not fatal, his leadership might have been
to the high aims of the Kepublican Party. But this peril
passed over, with the approach of the fall elections, when
party lines were again so sharply drawn that Lincoln and
Douglas found themselves, as usual, in opposing camps.
At the request of the Ohio Democrats, Douglas visited
that State, in September, 1859, to help them elect their
local ticket. Similar invitations, addressed to Lincoln from
various quarters in the North, had been declined ; but,
when the Buckeye Republicans asked him to come and
answer the speeches of this man who was regarded as his
particular antagonist, he complied. Following Douglas, by
a few days, at Columbus and at Cincinnati, respectively,
he made two effective speeches. They dealt not solely
with what had been said at those places, but indeed, with
most, if not all, of the important arguments made by the
Democratic leader in his addresses and his contributions
to the press since the debates. For now, more than ever,
Lincoln tenaciously stuck to Douglas. No public word or
act of the Senator escaped the notice of his indefatigable
rival. After the Ohio election, which resulted in favor of
the Republicans, Lincoln journeyed to Kansas. There as
elsewhere, to judge from the reports of his speeches, —
or rather from the fragments of several that have been
preserved, — "popular sovereignty," together with the ex-
pounder of the doctrine, was still uppermost in his mind.
And a few weeks thereafter, when he delivered at Cooper
ii6 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Institute, in New York, the most elaborate address of his
life, that same subject furnished a theme, and one of Doug-
las's speeches, a text. The oration at the metropolis was,
in fact, a grand summing up of the controversy opened by
Lincoln, as we have seen, somewhat over twenty months
before, in the little western Capital. By a sort of political
miracle, the arena in which the contestants then faced
each other had, with unexampled rapidity, grown until it
became coextensive with the entire country. A nation had
been watching the men and weighing the merits of their
quarrel. The time for a final decision between them was
almost at hand.
When the Republican National Convention met at
Chicago, in May, 1860, it passed over Seward, Chase, and
other recognized leaders, who sought the presidency, to
nominate Lincoln. This choice, though the causes and
considerations which led to it were manifold, had its basis
primarily on the record made by him in the fight against
Douglas. For, sharp as had been that conflict between
the two men, a still sharper one, to all appearances, im-
pended between their political supporters. The Repub-
licans and the northern Democrats, entering upon the
most momentous presidential campaign of our history, had
embodied in their respective platforms the principles at
issue throughout the debates. Consequently, when they
came to select candidates who were to stand upon these
platforms, they naturally regarded the debaters them-
selves as, in one important sense at least, their logical
standard-bearers. So Lincoln was named at Chicago, and
five weeks later, the Democratic National Convention at
Baltimore nominated Douglas.
But the second nomination was relatively a very differ-
ent affair from the first. Lincoln received the unanimous
vote of his party ; Douglas was chosen by a mere rump.
The Democracy had split across its middle, leaving the
Senator from Illinois at the head of the northern half,
and face to face with the fate foreseen by his competitor
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 117
at Freeport. In the debate at that place, Douglas, as will
be remembered, had been entrapped into an out-and-out
declaration of his attitude toward slavery in the Territo-
ries. " It matters not," he had said, answering Lincoln's
question, " what way the Supreme Court may hereafter
decide as to the abstract question whether slavery may or
may not go into a Territory under the Constitution, the
people have the lawful means to introduce it or exclude
it as they please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist
a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by local
police regulations. Those police regulations can only be
established by the local legislature ; and if the people are
opposed to slavery, they will elect representatives to that
body who will by unfriendly legislation effectually pre-
vent the introduction of it into their midst." ^^ This rare
sophism, "■ as thin," to use a Lincolnian illustration, " as
the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow
of a pigeon that had been starved to death," had never-
theless served Douglas's purpose with the Democrats of
Illinois. But how had it affected his popularity with the
party at large, and, above all, would it, as Lincoln had
predicted, cost him the presidency ?
The applause of the Senator's constituents over the
subterfuge of " unfriendly legislation " had not subsided
before a storm of protest arose in the South. Denuncia-
tions of Douglas and his " Freeport heresy," so-called,
filled the pro-slavery press ; adherents of Buchanan, point-
ing to the obnoxious avowal as conclusive evidence of
apostasy, assailed him in rapidly increasing numbers, and,
if possible, more bitterly than ever ; while those of the
southern leaders who might have overlooked his quarrel
with the administration also raised their voices in con-
demnation of what they regarded as a betrayal of their
dearest interests. In vain had Douglas hurried South,
after the debate, with speeches that commended slavery.
Fruitless were the addresses and pamphlets in which he
had sought to defend his position. To no purpose had it
ii8 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
been pointed out that he was pursuing the only course by
which the Democratic Party could hope for success in the
Free States. " His explanations explanatory of explana-
tions explained," as Lincoln felicitously described them,
appeared indeed to be "interminable"; yet all without
avail. By that answer at Freeport, — a formal declara-
tion at last of theories previously hinted at, — Douglas
had destroyed what remained of his southern prestige.
The slaveholders could have forgiven much in a man who
throughout his entire career, more efficiently than any
other northern politician, had fetched and carried for
them ; but this shifty doctrine, proclaiming " the institu-
tion " at the mercy of local laws, put forth as it was, on
the eve of their last desperate civil campaign, had marked
him for sacrifice. Hence the southern delegates to the
Democratic National Convention were resolved — cost
what it might — upon the overthrow of their once service-
able champion. His northern supporters, on the other
hand, were as determined to make him their candidate.
After a number of stormy sessions, in which the two fac-
tions drew farther and farther apart, the members from
the " cotton States," together with their sympathizers
from other sections, seceded to organize the pro-slavery
convention that nominated John C. Breckinridge ; and
what was left of the National Convention chose Douglas
to lead its forlorn hope.
So the " Little Giant " and the big one entered upon
what proved to be their last contest. Douglas was heavily
handicapped. His support in the South, as if it had not
been sufficiently reduced by the disruption of the Demo-
cratic Party and the candidacy of Breckinridge, was still
further impaired by the nomination, on a fourth ticket,
of John Bell of Tennessee. Yet Douglas was game. Dis-
regarding the wisdom and good taste that have, with rare
exceptions, restrained presidential candidates from advo-
cating their own election, he threw himself into the fight
with all the energy which had characterized his previous
GIANTS, BIG AND LITTLE 119
campaigns. In an extensive tour through the country, he
made many speeches, striking now at this competitor, now
at that. His old opponent, however, for the first time in
the history of their rivah-y, was mute. Lincoln's cause
was advocated by capable men enough, yet it must have
irked him to remain at home inactive while Douglas,
traveling from city to city, continued to state his side of
their debate. The Democratic leader, in truth, presented
no new arguments, and his old ones the Republican had,
over and over again, refuted. Popular Sovereignty and the
Freeport Doctrine — twin nostrums of an unscrupulous
political quack — had, thanks to Lincoln, been exposed in
all their futility. The time for shifts and delusions had
passed. Symptoms of trouble multiplied on every hand.
Columbia was sick — sick unto death. A black fever was
upon her. Heroic treatment alone might save her. In
this extremity, which of the two men — for the choice
really lay between them — would the nation trust ? The
decision rested with the Northern States. Small wonder
that, with a single exception, they turned from the char-
latan and placed themselves in the hands of the master
who had discredited him. Lincoln was elected. He led
Douglas, at the polls, by about five hundred thousand
votes ; and in the Electoral College, his ballots were 180 to
Douglas's 12.^^ What the result might have been had the
candidate of the northern Democrats received the nom-
ination of a united party, with but Lincoln and himself
in the field, is, of course, purely a matter for speculation.
The votes that were cast for Breckinridge and Bell, to-
gether with his own, would have given Douglas a majority
on popular ballot ; yet even so, his total from the electors
would have been only 123, and whether or not he could
have improved upon that figure, in a single-handed can-
vass against Lincoln, is beyond reasonable conjecture. In
any event, defeated. North and South, he had ceased to
be a vital factor in political calculations. All eyes were
turned upon his successful rival ; for the long race be-
I20 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
tween Lincoln and Douglas was finished, and Lincoln
had won.
When the President-elect, on inauguration day, stepped
out upon the platform that had been erected in front of
the eastern portico of the capitol, he found the senior Sen-
ator from Illinois among the distinguished men who sat
awaiting him, Mr. Lincoln, as if to add to the novelty of
his situation, was dressed in fine clothes, of which, for the
moment, he appeared to be all too conscious. In one hand
he held a new silk hat ; in the other, a gold-headed cane.
What to do with them perplexed him. After some hesi-
tation, he put the cane into a corner ; but he could find
no place for the hat, which he evidently was unwilling
to lay on the rough board floor. As he stood there in
embarrassment, with the waiting multitude looking up
curiously at him, his old rival came to his rescue. Tak-
ing the precious hat from its owner's hand, Douglas held
it, while Lincoln took the oath of office and delivered
his inaugural address.^^ The incident, simple in itself,
forms a dramatic climax to the lifelong competition
between them. As Lincoln stands forth crowned with
the highest honors to which their conflicting ambitions
had aspired, Douglas, in the background, humbly holds
the victor's hat.
CHAPTER IV
THE POWER BEHIND THE THRONE
On the first roll-call at the Republican National Conven-
tion of 1860, no less than a dozen men received votes for
the presidential nomination.^ Among the distinguished
party leaders and " favorite sons " thus honored, by far
the most prominent, at the time, was William Henry
Seward of New York. So greatly did he tower above all
other aspirants that the keenest observers on the ground
regarded his selection as a foregone conclusion. To him,
perhaps, more than to any other member of the young
organization was due the cohesion of its inharmonious
elements ; ^ to him those elements owed the most effectual
expression of their common principles ; and to him many
of their representatives, as they gathered in convention
at the opening of the great campaign, naturally looked for
leadership.
Seward's brilliant career, extending over thirty years
of political life, no less than his services to the new party,
had fairly earned for him this distinction. Two terms
in the upper chamber of the New York legislature, an
equal period as Governor of that most difficult of com-
monwealths, and two terms — all but completed — in the
United States Senate, had afforded him abundant oppor-
tunities for displaying executive and legislative talents of
a high order. As a politician, he had won his spurs lead-
ing a minority in the New York Senate, during the days
of the Anti-Masonic uprising; and when the Anti-Masons
became Whigs, a few years thereafter, his capabilities
for generalship had forthwith been recognized by the new
associates, in a nomination to the governorship of his
122 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
State. Though defeated in the canvass which followed,
he had, in the next election, as a candidate for the same
office, won a splendid victory over the so-called Albany
Regency — a powerful Democratic clique that had long
controlled political affairs. This success had a signifi-
cance more than local. It had carried Seward, before his
thirty-ninth birthday, into the front rank of party lead-
ers — an eminence that he was destined to maintain for
many years. Entering the United States Senate amidst
the stirring debates on the Compromise of 1850, he had
taken advanced ground against the extension of slavery ;
and, in the fierce parliamentary conflicts to ensue, he had
borne more than his share of southern abuse. With the
disfavor of the South, however, had kept pace the ap-
proval of the North, where a following, influential, large,
and steadily increasing, had looked to him, as to an oracle,
for political guidance. When this section had merged its
fortunes with those of the other anti-slavery factions to
form the Republican Party, our Whig Senator from New
York had been regarded generally throughout the country
as the foremost champion of the new cause.
The day on which the Convention met at Chicago, Seward
entered upon his sixtieth year. He was in his intellectual
prime, however, and no other aspirant to the presidency
appeared to be so amply qualified for the office. A college-
bred man, his education had taken the direction of gen-
eral culture rather than of profound learning. With habits
of thought essentially philosophical was combined a grasp
of practical matters that his long experience of public men
and events could alone have developed. Seldom brilliant,
but usually bright, he understood in a remarkable degree
how to make the most of his acquirements, and, for that
matter, of other people's as well. When his prolific mind
failed to supply a needed thought or expedient, he adopted
that of another so skilfully as to make it seem his own.
No labor was too exacting for his industry ; no obstacle
could baffle his perseverance. A man '• of cheerful yester-
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 123
days and confident to-morrows " — in him, more than
in any other statesman of his times, the ardent hopeful-
ness of youth blended with the wisdom of mature years.
An untiring student, moreover, of history and litera-
ture, a lawyer of uncommon ability, and a thinker who
lacked neither vigor nor imagination, he expressed him-
self, whether by tongue or pen, with equal felicity and
force. As an orator, Seward ranked below the great
triad — Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. He had neither
their genius nor their commanding presence. In his
slight stature, harsh voice, awkward gesture, and didactic
manner were lacking the personal charm that contributed
not a little to their triumphs ; yet his thoughtful, unim-
passioned speeches carried conviction as often, perhaps,
as did their best efforts. Rising above the personalities
which jangled the debates of the day, he maintained a
dignity and amiability of temper that no provocation
could disturb. To supporters, as well as to opponents,
he seemed to say : —
"Be calm in arguing; for fierceness makes
Error a fault, and truth discourtesy."
In his personal intercourse with people Seward's courtly
manners, his tact, and his social graces were not unim-
portant factors in the multiplication of his political
friends. For, whatever else he may have been, he was
still the politician. A party man, he believed that he
could best attain his ends within one of the two great or-
ganizations that usually divide the country ; but, when vital
principles were at stake, he did not hesitate to express,
in lofty periods, his own views, however much they might
differ from those of his associates. In the actual prac-
tice, nevertheless, of political strategy, he was not above
compromises or expedients which gave rise to charges of
insincerity and time-serving. Though an admirer of John
Quincy Adams to the point of veneration, he maintained
for many years a close political association with Thurlow
Weed. This was one of the enigmas in the man's com-
124 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
plex character. That Seward's acts, now and then, fell
considerably below his ideals, even staunch admirers could
not deny ; but they pointed out the limitations under
which, as a party leader, he had to labor, and they held
that these shortcomings were more than offset by repeated
manifestations of patriotic statesmanship.
This outline may afford some conception of the man who,
having left his seat in the Senate for his home at Auburn,
sat among his friends while the Republican Convention
was voting, and awaited with smiling confidence the news
of his nomination. That news, as we know, never came.
Instead of it, the wires brought the announcement of
his defeat and of Abraham Lincoln's selection, on the
third ballot. To explain this destruction of Seward's
hopes, contemporary historians have assigned widely dif-
ferent causes. His radical utterances on the slavery
question, particularly the speeches in which he fore-
shadowed the " irrepressible conflict " and declared that
there was " a higher law than the Constitution " ; his early
indulgence toward the Catholics when they had asked
to have the New York school fund divided, together with
his uncompromising opposition to the so-called American
principles of the old Know-Nothings ; their consequent
hostility to him, in considerable numbers, especially
throughout the pivotal States of Pennsylvania and Indi-
ana ; his uniform support of liberal public expenditures
which had led to extravagance — even corruption — on the
part of political associates less scrupulous than himself ;
the ill-repute of these friends, who, under the boss-rule of
Thurlow Weed, Seward's inseparable partner, had organ-
ized at Albany the most vicious lobby of the day ; the
antagonism of Horace Greeley, for many years devoted to
Seward's political fortunes, but latterly embittered against
him by feelings of wounded vanity, — each of these things
has been credited with the overthrow of the New York
Senator in the Convention. It would be nearer the truth
to say that all contributed their share toward the creation
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 125
of the opposition which, having faced Seward's plurality
with but little cooperation at the outset, finally combined
the required majority vote in support of his strongest
competitor.
What causes and considerations of a positive character
led to Lincoln's selection need not be considered here. He
owed the nomination, in the opinion of the Seward men,
to his weakness rather than to his strength. Their first
outbursts of indignation characterized the affair as a tri-
umph of unobjectionable mediocrity over greatness which
had, of necessity, during a long series of public services,
raised up many enemies to itself. They recalled that other
National Conventions had sacrificed their most eminent
leaders — as Webster had remarked, twelve years before,
on a similar occasion — to the " sagacious, wise, far-seeing
doctrine of availability " ; but they could not, for all that,
bring themselves at once to regard the overthrow of their
idol with anything approaching to acquiescence.^ A spirit
of bitter protest pervaded the visits, letters, and newspa-
per comments which poured in upon Seward, from every
direction. Their tenor may be inferred from what the Re-
publican Central Committee of his own State addressed
to him the day after the nomination had been made.
" The result of the Chicago Convention," wrote the Com-
mittee, " has been more than a surprise to the Republi-
cans of New York. That you who have been the earliest
defender of Republican principles — the acknowledged
head and leader of the party, who have given direction to
its movements and form and substance to its acts — that
you should have been put aside upon the narrow ground
of expediency, we can hardly realize or believe. What-
ever the decision of this, or a hundred other conventions,
we recognize in you the real leader of the Republican
Party ; and the citizens of every State and of all creeds
and parties, and the history of our country will confirm
this judgment." *
To this Seward replied : —
126 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
" I find in the resolutions of the Convention a platform
as satisfactory to me as if it had been framed with my
own hands ; and in the candidates adopted by it, emi-
nent and able Republicans with whom I have cordially
cooperated in maintaining the principles embodied in
that excellent creed. I cheerfully give them a sincere and
earnest support." ^
Similar sentiments were repeatedly expressed to his
disconsolate friends, upon whom he urged the duty of fore-
going their personal desires for the sake of the great cause.
He, himself, magnanimously setting the example, engaged
in the canvass with an energy and an eloquence that con-
tributed not a little to its successful issue. Here was a
general who did not sulk in his tent, while the war was
on, even though the commander had deprived him of what
so many told him and of what he himself believed to be his
due. Seward bore himself, during those trying times, with
rare dignity. Nevertheless, beneath his calm demeanor
were hidden feelings of keen disappointment and humili-
ation — how keen, only those nearest to him could guess.
When, in a letter to his wife, he described himself as " a
leader deposed by my own party in the hour of organiza-
tion for decisive battle," he compressed into a single
phrase his sense of the injustice done him.^ It is not sur-
prising, therefore, that after the battle had been fought
and the victory won, he should have looked upon Abraham
Lincoln as wearing honors that belonged, of right, to
William H. Seward.
A similar notion was entertained by the President-elect,
himself. He had, for some time before the Convention,
shared the prevailing opinion that the Senator from New
York stood in the front rank of preferment. When,
shortly after the debates of 1858, Jesse W. Fell, a politi-
cian of local prominence, had urged Lincoln to seek the
nomination, he had replied : —
" Oh, Fell, what 's the use of talking of me for the
presidency, whilst we have such men as Seward, Chase,
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 127
and others, who are so much better known to the people,
and whose names are so intimately associated with the
principles of the Republican Party ? Everybody knows
them ; nobody, scarcely, outside of Illinois, knows me.
Besides, is it not, as a matter of justice, due to such men,
who have carried the movement forward to its present
status, in spite of fearful opposition, personal abuse, and
hard names ? I really think so." ^
Not so, however, thought Fell and some of the speaker's
other friends ; for they persisted in their purpose until
they succeeded in getting his consent to the steps that led
to his nomination.
Even after the Chicago Convention had made Lincoln
the Republican standard-bearer, he continued to speak of
Seward as " the generally recognized leader " of the party.
In truth, not many years had elapsed since the successful
candidate had described himself to be " something of a
Seward Whig " ; ® and, on the very day of his nomination,^
he determined, if elected, to give his powerful competitor
the first portfolio in his cabinet.^" Carrying out this reso-
lution a month after the election, Lincoln sent Seward,
with the formal tender of the office, a confidential letter,
as sincere as it was deferential. Some assurance of the
writer's good faith seemed to be in order, because of the
newspaper rumors that the appointment was to be prof-
fered as a compliment, with the expectation that it would
be declined.
" I now offer you the place," wrote the President-elect,
" in the hope that you will accept it, and with the belief
that your position in the public eye, your integrity, ability,
learning, and great experience, all combine to render it
an appointment preeminently fit to be made." ^^
Seward accepted, though not without misgivings. His
partner. Weed, after two days of consultation with Mr.
Lincoln at Springfield, had returned home with most
unsatisfactory conclusions as to the probable composition
of the cabinet. It was to include, he inferred, Messrs.
128 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Seward, Bates, Smith,^^ Chase, Cameron, Blair, and
Welles. The first three had been Whigs, and the last
four might be classified as former Democrats.
" I inquired," reports Weed, " whether, in the shape
which the question was taking, it was just or wise to con-
cede so many seats in the cabinet to the Democratic ele-
ment in the Republican Party. He replied that as a Whig
he thought he could afford to be liberal to a section of the
Republican Party, without whose votes he could not have
been elected. I admitted the justice and wisdom of this,
adding that in arranging and adjusting questions of
place and patronage in our State we had acted in that
spirit, but that I doubted both the justice and the wis-
dom, in inaugurating his administration, of giving to a
minority of the Republican Party a majority in his cabi-
net. I added that the National Convention indicated
unmistakably the sentiment of its constituency by nomi-
nating for President a candidate with Whig antecedents,
while its nominee for Vice-President had been for many
years a Democratic representative in Congress. ' But,'
said Mr. Lincoln, ' why do you assume that we are giving
that section of our party a majority in the cabinet ? ' I
replied that if Messrs. Chase, Cameron, Welles, and
Blair should be designated, the cabinet would stand four
to three. ' You seem to forget that / expect to be there ;
and counting me as one, you see how nicely the cabinet
would be balanced and ballasted.' " ^^
This view of the matter failed to reassure Seward's
friends. They were not disposed to accept the President-
elect as a very heavy make- weight. What power, moreover,
to keep his craft trimmed in the maelstrom of Washing-
ton politics, at that particularly threatening period, could
they expect from an untried man who, to use the language
of one of his biographers, " had just been so freakishly
picked out of a frontier town to take charge of the des-
tinies of the United States " ? " His seeming inefficiency
to meet the approaching crisis should have led him, they
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 129
thought, to make up his cabinet under the advice of the
New York statesman, —
" That sacred seer, whose comprehensive view
The past, the present, and the future knew."
Aided by harmonious assistants, Seward might then be
relied on, said his admirers, to save the administration,
and perhaps the country, from disaster. As the virtual,
if not the nominal head of the new government, why
should not the Secretary of State, like the British Prime
Minister, be allowed to choose his own colleagues and to
assign them their respective places ? It was even urged
upon Mr. Lincoln that he ought to visit Auburn and con-
sult the great man's wishes ; but, strange to relate, the
President-elect did not do so.
These efforts to secure what was termed a Seward
cabinet were redoubled after the prospective Secretary
of State had accepted the portfolio. His political associ-
ates earnestly opposed the appointment of Messrs. Blair
and Welles, not only because they had been Democrats,
but also on account of their personal antagonism to him.
Even more objectionable to the Seward faction, however,
than these two men, was Mr. Chase. His incompatibility
with the Whig leader was so pronounced that one or the
other, it was intimated to the President-elect, should be
omitted from the cabinet. And all this time Seward's
campaign against Chase, it should be said, was not more
aggressive than that of Chase against Seward. Mr. Lin-
coln listened to what was said on both sides, but he made
none of the desired changes. Indeed, it is a highly sig-
nificant fact that, despite this and other equally bitter
partisan struggles over the cabinet, to say nothing of cer-
tain contemplated changes, the list when he arrived in
Washington was essentially what he had planned on the
night of his election. ^^ Still the Seward men persevered.
A large delegation of them waited upon the President-
elect, two days before the inauguration, to urge the ex-
clusion of Chase. His faults and Seward's virtues having
I30 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
been dwelt upon at length, they announced as an ultima-
tum, what had previously been implied, that their leader
would not sit in council with him. Whether or not Mr.
Lincoln was prepared for this may be inferred from his
answer, shortly before, to a friend who inquired about a
rumored change in the list.
" Judd," said he, " when that slate breaks again, it will
break at the top." ^^
Nevertheless, the attitude of the delegation appeared
greatly to distress him. He expressed his esteem for both
men, and said that the country wanted the hearty coopera-
tion of all good citizens, without regard to sections. Here
there was an ominous pause. Then, taking a paper out of
a table-drawer, he continued : —
" I had written out my choice and selection of members
for the cabinet after most careful and deliberate consid-
eration, and now you are here to tell me I must break the
slate and begin the thing all over again."
He had hoped, he said, to have Mr. Seward as his Sec-
retary of State and Mr. Chase as his Secretary of the
Treasury ; but he could not reasonably expect to have
things just as he liked them, so he had prepared an alter-
native list to meet their objections.
"This being the case, gentlemen," he added, "how
would it do for us to agree upon a change like this ? To
appoint Mr. Chase Secretary of the Treasury, and offer
the State Department to Mr. William L. Dayton, of New
Jersey ? "
The delegation, according to Lamon, who tells the
story,^^ were " shocked, disappointed, outraged." Their
indignation, it is needless to say, was not allayed by Mr,
Lincoln's phlegmatic reminder that Mr. Dayton was an
old Whig like Mr. Seward himself, from " next door to
New York," nor by his suggestion that the latter might
be Minister to England. Exit delegation ; enter Seward,
on the same day, with their last shot. In a brief and
coldly formal note he asked " leave to withdraw " the ac-
^^£^'a^.^ //;"^7^
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 131
ceptance of his appointment.^^ Here was a crisis on the
very threshold of the new administration ! The withdrawal
of this potent leader would not alone alienate many whose
support, in the perilous condition of affairs, the President-
elect had counted on ; but it would also necessitate an
entire reconstruction of his proposed cabinet. Yet Lin-
coln stood firm. Pondering over his answer for two days,
he handed it to his private secretary, on the morning of
inauguration day, with the characteristic remark, " I can't
afford to let Seward take the first trick." Nor did he.
The note was as short, almost to the word, as the one that
had called it forth.^^ Without touching upon the questions
at issue, the message merely expressed a strong desire that
Seward should not persist in his purpose. " It is the sub-
ject," wrote Mr. Lincoln, " of the most painful solicitude
with me ; and I feel constrained to beg that you will
countermand the withdrawal. The public interest, I think,
demands that you should ; and my personal feelings are
deeply enlisted in the same direction. Please consider and
answer by 9 o'clock a. m. to-morrow." ^"^
On the following morning, the New York statesman,
having had an interview with the President, duly returned
to his allegiance. A few hours later, when the cabinet
appointments were submitted to the Senate, Messrs. Chase,
Blair, and Welles were still on the list ; and, lo ! Governor
Seward's name, like Abou Ben Adhem's, led all the rest.
The tact and strength of will manifested by Lincoln in
this first difference with Seward should have made some
impression, one would suppose, on that astute leader and
his no less sagacious advisers. They still, however, en-
tirely misconceived the new President's character. The
homely simplicity with which he had borne himself when
visited at " his secluded abode," as one of them expressed
it, " in the heart of Illinois," the candor with which he
acknowledged his deficiencies, and the meekness with
which he listened to innumerable counselors, bidden or
otherwise, left most of the politicians firm in the opinion
132 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
that the conduct of the coming administration would be
in the hands of his strongest Secretary. Seward's one
formidable rival for this supremacy some of them had,
it was true, failed to exclude from the cabinet ; but this
was attributed to the influence which Chase had brought
to bear, rather than to any masterful trait in Lincoln,
himself.
The widespread notion of the President's weakness was
shared by Seward, who, at the same time, concurred —
need we add ? — in the general estimate of his own supe-
riority. From the day on which he first consented to be-
come head of the State Department, he carried himself as
if responsibility for the entire government were to rest on
his shoulders. Having been the guiding spirit, unofficially,
eleven years before, through General Taylor's brief presi-
dency, how much more might he now expect to dominate an
equally untried Executive who had called him to the most
prominent place in his cabinet! They were to take office,
moreover, under conditions that tended greatly to mag-
nify Mr. Seward's importance. During the winter which
elapsed between the time of Mr. Lincoln's election and his
inauguration, the Southern States, one after another, made
good their threats of secession ; officers of the army and
navy, resigning from the service in large numbers, turned
their swords against the government ; treason paralyzed
every department at Washington ; enemies of the Union —
even in Mr. Buchanan's very cabinet — labored to destroy
national authority ; and the aged President, himself, looked
on helplessly, for a time at least, as civil government
buildings, forts, arsenals, lighthouses, ships, marine hos-
pitals, and navy-yard, together with valuable munitions,
were seized by the rapidly organizing Confederacy. While
the country, demoralized North and South, thus drifted
through those four long months into civil war, the man
who had just been chosen to control its fortunes remained,
owing to a singular defect in our system, powerless to
avert the disaster. In this extremity Mr. Lincoln naturally
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 133
turned to Mr. Seward. From his seat in the Upper House
the Senator became, in certain respects, the eyes and ears,
as well as the tongue, of the coming administration. His
utterances were eagerly scanned by the people for indica-
tions of its policy, while the President-elect was no less
keen for the confidential letters in which his prospective
Secretary kept him informed as to the temper of parties
and persons at the Capital. When loyal members of
Buchanan's cabinet wished to give warning of the con-
spiracy in the President's council, they communicated with
Mr. Seward; when the General commanding the army
needed advice, he too conferred with him ; when Mr.
Lincoln desired to lay his views before the committee
appointed by the Senate to devise a preventive for the
impending quarrel, his suggestions were placed in the
hands of the member from New York ; and when con-
servative men, on both sides, sought a peaceful solution of
the difficulty, they appealed to that same gentleman. In
short, during this period, Mr. Seward was considered by
many to be the man of the hour, and it is not too much to
say that he occupied a position unique in the experience
of American statesmen.
For a parallel we must turn to that stormy period
in English politics when William Pitt the Elder, on the
eve of entering office as Secretary of State, with the lead
in the House of Commons, the supreme direction of the
French war, and the control of foreign affairs, declared : —
" I know that I can save the country, and I know no
other man can."
So in Mr. Seward's private letters to his wife, from
Washington, during the winter of 1860-61, may be caught
glimpses, here and there, of how entirely he believed him-
self to be the Providence of the incoming administration.^^
The day on which he accepted the first tender of the secre-
taryship, he wrote to Mrs. Seward : —
" I have advised Mr. L. that I will not decline. It is
inevitable. I will try to save freedom and my country."
134 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
A few days later he wrote : —
" I have assumed a sort of dictatorship for defence ;
and am laboring night and day, with the cities and States.
My hope, rather my confidence, is unabated."
In another letter we find : —
" I am trying to get home ; but as yet I see no chance.
It seems to me that if I am absent only three days, this
administration, the Congress, and the District would fall
into consternation and despair. I am the only hopeful,
calm^ conciliatory person here."
Still another reads : —
" Mad men North and mad men South are working
together to produce a dissolution of the Union by civil
war. The present administration and the incoming one
unite in devolving on me the responsibility of averting
those disasters. . . . Once for all, I must gain time for
the new administration to organize and for the frenzy of
passion to subside. I am doing this without making any
compromise whatever, by forbearance, conciliation, mag-
nanimity."
And shortly after the inauguration, he wrote to her : —
" The President is determined that he will have a com-
pound cabinet ; and that it shall be peaceful, and even
permanent. I was at one time on the point of refusing —
nay, I did refuse, for a time, to hazard myself in the ex-
periment. But a distracted country appeared before me ;
and I withdrew from that position. I believe I can endure
as much as any one ; and may be that I can endure enough
to make the experiment successful. At all events I did
not dare to go home, or to England, and leave the country
to chance."
These assertions seem painfully presumptuous, to-day.
Early in March, 1861, not many persons — had the letters
been made public — would have so regarded them.
All circumstances seemed to confirm Seward's high
estimate of his value. On the day of Mr. Lincoln's arri-
val, in Washington, the President-elect submitted to his
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 135
prospective Secretary of State a copy of his inaugural ad-
dress, as it had been privately printed before he left home.
If Mr. Seward believed this honor to be exclusive, he was
mistaken, for the document had been placed before several
other public men.^^ None of them had ventured, however,
upon anything like the thorough revision to which he sub-
jected it. When the address was returned, on the follow-
ing evening, it was accompanied by many suggestions,
ranging in importance from the rejection or insertion of
entire paragraphs to the change of a word.^ The critic,
defending the conservative tendency of his corrections,
wrote : —
" Only the soothing words which I have spoken have
saved us and carried us along thus far. Every loyal man
and, indeed, every disloyal man, in the South, will tell
you this."
By way of apology for the liberties he had taken, the
writer explained : —
" I, my dear sir, have devoted myself singly to the
study of the case — here, with advantages of access and
free communication with all parties of all sections. I have
a common responsibility and interest with you, and I
shall adhere to you faithfully in every case. You must,
therefore, allow me to speak frankly and candidly." ^*
This "common responsibility" the President-elect, un-
conscious of personal pride in the matter, seemingly
recognized. He adopted, with nice discrimination, wholly
or in part, such of the amendments as improved the
address ; and the deference with which he did so, together
with his unassuming manner throughout the afEair, could
not have raised him in the eyes of his ambitious Secretary
of State. Perhaps that gentleman recalled how under sim-
ilar circumstances the great Webster had revised the inau-
gural address of the brave but inexperienced Harrison.
If so, the parallel must have augured well for the later
minister's influence over the incoming administration.-^
As the role of "guide, philosopher, and friend " to this
136 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
seemingly simple provincial statesman devolved on Mr.
Seward before the inauguration, how much more depend-
ent upon him might he not expect Mr. Lincoln to become
after they had entered office ! A minority President, to
use an epithet common at the time, was about to govern
a dismembered nation, with the aid of a party hardly less
divided. His cabinet lacked unity of purpose or principle,
and its strongest members agreed in nothing so much as
in mistrusting his leadership. He, himself, felt keenly
the want of preparation for a task such as had never
before confronted an American Executive. Not one revo-
lution, but two, piled up perplexities around him ; for
the sweeping changes among office-holders, required by
the situation, troubled him, at first, almost as greatly as
did the action of the seceding States. In the confusion,
Mr. Lincoln, of necessity, entrusted much to his confi-
dential advisers, and especially to his Secretary of State.
That functionary bade fair, then, more than ever, to
become the power behind the Throne, greater than the
Throne itself. For his talents, brilliant as they were on
public occasions, shone with their greatest splendor when
he employed them to enforce his views, in private confer-
ence. At cabinet meetings, or at informal interviews with
the President, these powers were, from the very begin-
ning, exerted with frequent, though not uniform, success.
During those first few weeks Mr. Lincoln seemed, so
far as the public could see, to yield himself up — as did
one President before him and one after — to the charm of
Mr. Seward's persuasiveness. The influence of the State
Department was believed to be paramount, and the jour-
nalist who, before the inauguration, had spoken of the
coming regime as " the New Yorker with his Illinois at-
tachment," thus coarsely expressed the popular opinion.^^
" It is certain," wrote another keen observer, " that his
ego et rex meus style of speaking about himself and
Mr. Lincoln created a general belief at Washington that
he would be the Wolsey of the new administration, with
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 137
' law in his voice and honor in his hand ' ; while others
would be subordinate and the President himself little
more than a figurehead." ^^
People of all classes soon formed the habit of applying
to Mr. Seward the titles — foreign to our polity though
they are — of Premier and Prime Minister. Under these
designations the working head of the British government
forms the cabinet, advises the selection and resignation
of his colleagues, dictates policies, passes upon important
matters in all departments, stands between the throne and
the cabinet, dispenses enormous patronage, acts at times
as a leader of his party in Parliament, and answers for
his conduct, in the main, not to the sovereign, but to the
representatives of the people. The first of these func-
tions Seward had, somehow, as we have seen, failed to per-
form ; but he plunged into the others, as nearly as might
be, with a spirit befitting the Pitt of the first Republican
administration.
The Secretary of State, patterning in a way after Jef-
ferson and Jackson, succeeded, for several weeks at the
outset, in preventing regular cabinet meetings. Greatly
to the annoyance of his colleagues, he held that only such
members as were particularly concerned in whatever
might be under consideration should be invited to consult
with him and the President. Accordingly, as occasion
required, some or all of them were convened in council,
on special notice from himself. This procedure, though
short-lived, served to confirm for the time his pretensions
to unlimited jurisdiction. He busied himself in matters
that properly pertained to his cabinet associates ; nor
did he hesitate, upon the demands of a sharp-set political
following, to claim the right of controlling appointments
in departments other than his own. " The consequences
were," records the then Secretary of the Navy, " that con-
fusion and derangement prevailed to some extent at the
commencement by reason of the mental activity, assump-
tions, and meddlesome intrusions of the Secretary of State
138 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
in the duties and affairs of others, which were, if not dis-
organizing, certainly not good administration. Confidence
and mutual frankness on public affairs and matters per-
taining to the government, particularly on what related
to present and threatened disturbances, existed among all
the members, with the exception of Mr. Seward, who
had, or affected, a certain mysterious knowledge which
he was not prepared to impart. This was accepted as a
probable necessity by his associates, for he had been in a
position to ascertain facts which it was intimated he could
not perhaps well disclose. It early became apparent,
however, that the Secretary of State had ideas and notions
of his own position and that of his colleagues, as well as
of the character and attitude of the President, that others
could not admit or recognize." ^ This sketch of the situ-
ation, though it may have been slightly colored by the
recollection of Mr. Welles's own particular grievances,
is in effect, correct. On the other hand, justice to Mr.
Seward requires us to say that his motives were patri-
otic, and that some at least of his so-called " meddlesome
intrusions " had the President's sanction.
Secretary Seward's activities outside of his department
naturally led to misunderstandings. These embarrassed
the administration, at times, not a little ; but the Presi-
dent patiently smoothed them over, and continued to de-
fer in many, if not in all things, to Mr. Seward's wisdom.
That gentleman's evident purpose, however, to run the
government had not escaped Mr. Lincoln's notice. While
apparently ignoring his aspirations, the President, like
the practiced wrestler of his youthful days, found time to
take the measure of the man who, according to common
report, was to occupy in fact, if not in form, the place to
which he, himself, had been elected. When Mrs. Lincoln,
ever vigilant for her husband's fame, repeated to him
the boast of the Secretary's friends that Mr. Seward was
the power behind the throne and could rule the Presi-
dent, he answered : —
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 139
" I may not rule, myself, but certainly Seward shall
not. The only ruler I have is my conscience — following
God in it — and these men will have to learn that yet." ^
A lesson was near at hand.
The first vital question to occupy the attention of the
new government had, in fact, developed a wide difference
of opinion between Mr. Lincoln and his Secretary of
State. It concerned the stone pentagon at the entrance
to Charleston harbor, in which Major Anderson and his
command were practically besieged by the South Carolina
troops. The batteries surrounding Fort Sumter had grown
so formidable, and the post was, in many essentials, so
weak, that it had become daily less tenable. Yet the Pre-
sident was hardly prepared to receive, on the morning
following his inauguration. Major Anderson's report ^
that the garrison, unless succored, would in a few weeks
be reduced to starvation, and that relief, with a view to
holding the place, could not be effected by " a force of
less than twenty thousand good and well-disciplined men."
This estimate was accompanied by those of the nine other
officers in Fort Sumter, who, while differing as to figures,
agreed that a considerable land and naval expedition
would be required. ^^ No such adequate force was ready
or could be made ready in time. Accordingly, Lieuten-
ant-General Scott, the commander-in-chief, who had at
once been consulted by Mr. Lincoln, reported on the night
of that same day : —
"Evacuation seems almost inevitable, and in this view
our distinguished Chief Engineer (Brigadier Totten) con-
curs." ^2
But the President did not concur. He had promised
the nation, a few hours previously, in his inaugural ad-
dress, that the power confided to him would " be used to
hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belong-
ing to the government." How could he, then, before the
words had well reached the people, abandon, without a
struggle, an important stronghold ! The situation pre-
I40 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
sented a problem as perplexing in its political as in its mil-
itary aspects. So he turned to his cabinet for counsel.
Mr. Lincoln's civil advisers were, at first, almost a
unit in adopting the conclusions of the experts at army
headquarters. There was an exception, however, in the
person of Postmaster-General Blair, a Democrat of the
Jacksonian school, who was as earnest in advocating firm
measures toward South Carolina as had been his father,
twenty-eight years before, in upholding the strong hand
with which President Jackson had put down sedition in
that same State. Following this example, Montgomery
Blair, previous to his entry into the cabinet, as well as
on every available occasion thereafter, had urged upon
the President the necessity of holding Fort Sumter at any
cost. He alone among his associates appears to have
fully recognized the inconsistency of reversing, at the
very earliest test, the policy which Mr. Lincoln had so
positively affirmed upon taking office.^ The President,
himself, was keenly alive to his predicament. " When
Anderson goes out of Fort Sumter," said he, "I shall
have to go out of the White House." ^ He believed, in-
deed, as he explained to Congress, some months later,
" that to so abandon that position, under the circum-
stances, would be utterly ruinous ; that the necessity
under which it was to be done would not be fully under-
stood ; that by many it would be construed as a part of a
voluntary policy ; that at home it would discourage the
friends of the Union, embolden its adversaries, and go
far to insure to the latter a recognition abroad ; that, in
fact, it would be our national destruction consummated.
This could not be allowed." ^ Yet his views were sup-
ported, apparently, by only the youngest and least distin-
guished member of the cabinet. None of the eminent
soldiers or statesmen to whom Mr. Lincoln first looked
for advice were in accord with the President's attitude ;
and the least acquiescent, perhaps, of them all was his
Secretary of State.
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 141
Mr. Seward had throughout the preceding winter in-
dulged the hope of averting civil war and of reconciling
existing differences, without ultimately sacrificing the
Union. How this was to be accomplished is not clear to
us ; nor could it, in the nature of things, have been clear
to that statesman himself. His policy, as vaguely stated,
weeks before, in the Senate, was " to meet prejudice with
conciliation, exaction with concession which surrenders
no principle, and violence with the right hand of peace." ^
Such tactics would, he believed, keep the wavering Border
States loyal to the Union, stem the current of revolution
in the cotton belt, and eventually bring the seceders back
to their allegiance, by way of a convention in which their
demands might, somehow or other, be satisfied. That
these ends were to be attained, and through his instru-
mentality, was Seward's fixed idea. For weeks after the
signs of the times must have discouraged a less buoyant
leader, he persisted in his course. As late as March 8,
1861, he is reported to have said,^^ in effect : —
" I have built up the Republican Party, I have brought
it to triumph, but its advent to power is accompanied by
great difficulties and perils. I must save the party, and
save the government in its hands. To do this, war must
be averted, the negro question must be dropped, the irre-
pressible conflict ignored, and a Union party to embrace
the Border Slave States inaugurated. I have already
whipped Mason and Hunter in their own State. I must
crush out Davis, Toombs, and their colleagues in sedition
in their respective States. Saving the Border States to
the Union by moderation and justice, the people of the
cotton States, unwillingly led into secession, will rebel
against their leaders, and reconstruction will follow." **
Mr. Seward's plans and expectations, it should be
added, would, in his opinion, come to naught, if force were
employed against the secessionists.^ He had, accordingly,
urged Mr. Lincoln to omit from the inaugural address
that promise " to hold, occupy, and possess the property
142 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
and places belonging to the government " ; but with-
out avail. The conflict in policy, thus revealed before the
men had even entered office, reached deeper than at first
appears. Not only did Mr. Lincoln deem it the Presi-
dent's duty to hold the possessions of the nation, but his
rugged logic also recognized, as a necessary corollary, that
he was under like obligations to reclaim any property of
which it had been deprived. He had so expressed him-
self in the original draft of the address. Upon a friend's
advice, however, the clause declaring a purpose to recap-
ture what was seized had been omitted — not on account
of any change in his intention, but because the announce-
ment, at the time, might have needlessly irritated the
South."'' And this he desired to avoid no less earnestly
than Mr. Seward. Indeed, the President and his Secre-
tary of State had the same goal in mind, though they
disagreed materially — as we have seen — over the path
by which it should be reached.
With the weight of opinion among his advisers squarely
against holding Sumter, Mr. Lincoln might have been
justified in adopting their views. Such a step, it is true,
would have been repugnant to his sense of duty. On the
other hand, a relief expedition, in the face of all this oppo-
sition, — military as well as political, — was equally out of
the question. Perplexed beyond measure, the President
put off his decision and sought more light. The technical
objections of the military men he was, of course, unpre-
pared to meet. So the reports were referred back to Gen-
eral Scott, for further consideration ; while army and navy
officers, with special knowledge on the subject, were sum-
moned before the cabinet, in frequent consultation. What
followed makes one of the most entertaining chapters in
the genesis of the war. Nevertheless — except so far as
concerns the relations between Mr. Lincoln and Mr.
Seward — a few lines must suffice for it here. The com-
mander-in-chief, reaffirming his conviction that the fort
could be neither provisioned nor reenforced, submitted an
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 143
order of evacuation for the President's signature.^* Instead
of signing this, Mr. Lincoln requested his cabinet officers,
respectively, to furnish him v^ith written opinions as to
whether, under the circumstances, an attempt to provision
Fort Sumter was wise. In their answers, Mr. Blair, as
before, said emphatically — yes ; Mr. Chase said — yes,
with reservations ; Messrs. Smith, Bates, Welles, Cam-
eron, and Seward said — no. The most urgent counsel
for retreat still came from the Department of State. Mr.
Seward argued, with his customary elaboration, that a
relief expedition, whether successful or otherwise, would
precipitate civil war; and, as this contention had the
support of his four last-mentioned associates, he confi-
dently expected the President to follow his lead.*^
So sanguine was Mr. Seward of imposing his ultra-
conciliatory policy upon the administration that he had,
from the start, conducted himself as if the abandonment
of Sumter were assured. This was notably the case in his
dealings with the commissioners sent to Washington by
the Provisional Government of the Confederacy.*^ Pre-
senting themselves, on the advent of the Lincoln regime,
they had sought to open diplomatic relations with it
through the State Department. The head of that office,
whom they then, in common with so many people. North
and South, took to be the head of the administration as
well, was — they were aware — committed to peace and
concession. The commissioners' hopes, therefore, no less
than their pretensions as ambassadors from what was
ostensibly a foreign country, led them to Mr. Seward's
door. He declined to receive them, and asked the Presi-
dent for instructions. Profiting by Mr. Buchanan's error,
under somewhat similar conditions, Mr. Lincoln directed
his Secretary neither to recognize the envoys officially, nor
to hold any communication with them whatever. Where-
upon several eminent intermediaries were impressed into
service. Perhaps the most active among these was Justice
Campbell of the United States Supreme Court.** Although
144 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
a Southerner, who was shortly to join the secessionists, his
exalted rank and apparent loyalty to the Union secured
him Mr. Seward's respectful attention. Their interviews
were chiefly about Fort Sumter, which, the Secretary gave
the Judge to understand, would be evacuated within a
few days. This welcome news Campbell lost no time in
carrying to the commissioners and in writing to Jefferson
Davis.
Meanwhile, Mr. Lincoln continued to study the situa-
tion, in his own way. Consulting with military and naval
men whenever he could snatch a few moments from other
cares, trying, by the reenforcement of Fort Pickens in
Florida, to take the sting out of possible failure in South
Carolina, studying Anderson's resources,^^ sending trusty
observers to Charleston and Sumter, drawing information
from executive departments, weighing chances in the Bor-
der States, gauging southern passions, testing northern
sentiment, — all this got him ready, by the close of March,
for the decision that could no longer be deferred. On the
29th of the month he again, at a cabinet meeting, took
the written opinions of his ministers. Out of the six who
were present, three — Blair, Chase, and Welles — now
agreed with the President's homely dictum that they
should " send bread to Anderson." Bates, who had pre-
viously been against provisioning the fort, was non-com-
mittal. Smith favored evacuation, on purely military
grounds. Seward, standing alone, still advised " against
the expedition in every view." ^ When the cabinet ad-
journed, Mr. Lincoln, who had practically reached a con-
clusion before it assembled, directed Secretaries Cameron
and Welles to enter upon relief preparations.^^ The order
for the expedition to sail was withheld several days,
however, and while the issue seemed to hang in the bal-
ance, Mr. Seward continued his opposition. Even after
the final command was given, he found it " difficult to
believe" that the President's policy, and not his, had
prevailed.*®
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 145
Mr. Lincoln's decision left the Secretary of State in an
embarrassing position. The North, for the moment, looked
askance upon the all-powerful statesman whose plans,
predictions, and promises were thus, despite his most
strenuous efforts, discredited. The South, taking its cue
from Justice Campbell and the Confederate commission-
ers, accused him of duplicity. A similar charge spread
against the Lincoln government itself, which, the seces-
sionist leaders insisted, was wholly under Mr. Seward's
control. That such was not the case, the shrewdest of
them had, for some time, more than conjectured ; and
that the Secretary of State acted in good faith, when he
said he would have his way with Sumter, is established be-
yond reasonable doubt. ^^ But the very facts which acquit
the minister of double-dealing convict him, as clearly, of
grave indiscretion. He had taken upon himself to speak
conclusively in an important matter, while it was under
the consideration of his chief, who alone had authority to
pronounce the decisive word.^ Such presumption would,
of course, have been out of the question, for a politician of
Seward's experience, had he not, even after four weeks
of close intercourse with Lincoln, committed the unpar-
donable blunder in statecraft. That is to say, he still
entirely miscalculated the caliber of the man he sought
to rule.
In the whirl of events, the Secretary's dazzled vision
mistook the President's lack of knowledge for incapacity ;
his indecision, for executive incompetence ; his modesty,
for weakness. The ship of state seemed to be drifting
on to the rocks, and a stronger hand — so thought Mr.
Seward — was needed, forthwith, at the helm. He had,
as we have seen, embarked in the administration with the
expectation of directing its course. The notion had appar-
ently been confirmed, not only by public opinion, but also
by the deference with which the President treated him.
Nevertheless, as the Sumter incident advanced, the Sec-
retary realized that his power was far from complete.
146 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
How to make himself supreme, once for all, and, at the
same time, rescue the country from civil war, had occu-
pied a few of the feverish hours which preceded that final
decision to relieve the fort. Something had to be done,
and quickly, too. Perhaps the readiest expedient might
have been that by which Cardinal Gaetano supplanted his
Pope, the pious and unworldly Celestine. Messer Gaetano,
so the story runs, contrived, soon after the Pontiff's con-
secration, to fill the sacred chamber, at night, with voices
that called, as if from Heaven, " Resign, Celestine ! Re-
sign ! " Whereupon the simple monk, already distracted
by ecclesiastical intrigues for which he was so ill-adapted,
took the wily Cardinal's advice to abdicate, and turned
" toward his secluded abode," in the heart of the moun-
tains ; while Gaetano succeeded him, as Boniface VIII.
This trick answered well enough for mediaeval politics,
but our Secretary, of State had to dip deep down into his
mind for a more modern device. So he summoned Mr.
Lincoln to surrender the management of public affairs, in
a memorandum entitled " Some Thoughts for the Presi-
dent's Consideration, April 1, 1861." The document, after
declaring that the administration, at the end of its first
month, was " without a policy, domestic or foreign,"
presented " Thoughts " that might serve for both. As
" the policy at home," it set forth that the horde of appli-
cants for local offices should be disposed of, without de-
lay ; that the issue before the country should be changed
from a question of slavery to one of union ; and that
Sumter should be evacuated, but all other Federal points
in the South defended. The " Thoughts " headed " For
Foreign Nations " were vigorous, indeed. Explanations
were to be required from Spain, France, Great Britain,
and Russia, which all seemed to contemplate interference
in American affairs. If the two first-named governments,
more aggressive than the others, did not return satisfac-
tory answers. Congress was to be convened, and war was
to be declared against them." A spirit of antagonism
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 147
against European intervention was, at the same time, to
be aroused in Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the
continent, generally. " But whatever policy we adopt,"
read the concluding " Thoughts," " there must be an ener-
getic prosecution of it. For this purpose, it must be
somebody's business to pursue and direct it, incessantly.
Either the President must do it himself, and be all the
while active in it, or devolve it on some member of his
cabinet. Once adopted, debates on it must end, and all
agree and abide. It is not in my especial province ; but
I neither seek to evade nor assume responsibility."^^
Never before had an American cabinet minister penned
a document so extraordinary. Its unwisdom — wild as
some of the suggestions were — did not exceed its effront-
ery.^^ The plan to unite the discordant sections of the
United States by leaving their differences unsettled, and
plunging the whole continent into a series of foreign wars
on sentimental grounds, reads like the desperate contriv-
ance of a panic-stricken mind.^* The implication that Mr.
Lincoln was unequal to his duties and should turn over
the most important of them to a sort of dictator, could
have been addressed by Mr. Seward only to a President
whom he believed to be totally lacking in strength of
character. His error was corrected without further delay.
Before the last fish was hooked or the last cuckoo hunted,
on that All Fools' Day, he had Mr. Lincoln's written
reply. The President, with his customary disregard of
self, ignored the insult, and with tact, not less delicate,
refrained from comment on the fantastic scheme for
European wars. His Secretary was informed that he
would find the domestic policy of the administration out-
lined in the inaugural address,^^ and its foreign policy
in the despatches sent abroad by the State Department.
As to the exercise of absolute authority, suggested in
Mr. Seward's closing propositions, Mr. Lincoln said : —
"I remark that if this must be done, I must do it.
When a general line of policy is adopted, I apprehend
148 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
there is no danger of its being changed without good
reason, or continuing to be a subject of unnecessary
debate ; still, upon points arising in its progress I wish,
and suppose I am entitled to have, the advice of all the
cabinet." ^^
Having quietly settled the question of supremacy, Mr.
Lincoln put the " Thoughts " away among his personal
papers, where they remained until his private secretaries,
years after both statesmen had passed from the scene,
published them to an astonished world. Excepting Mr.
Nicolay, nobody else apparently knew of their existence, for
the one to whom they were addressed never, it is believed,
spoke of them, not even to the Secretary of State himself.
If that gentleman, when he received his answer, had any
lingering doubts as to the President's superiority over
him, they must have been dismissed when he realized
how entirely Mr. Lincoln disdained to take advantage of
a weapon which, in the grasp of most politicians, would,
under the circumstances, have been used to destroy the
maker. If ever public man held a formidable rival in
the hollow of his hand, here was an instance of it. Yet
Gulliver, setting down unharmed the Liliputian who had
tormented him, behaved not more gently than did the
President toward this presumptuous minister."
Thus ended Seward's dream of domination. All his
romantic notions of saving the country aus eigner Macht^
so freely expressed in those confidential letters to his wife,
had to be revised, and we find him presently writing to
her: —
" Executive skill and vigor are rare qualities. The
President is the best of us." ^^
In the public eye, however, the Secretary of State still
held sway. His defeat on the Sumter question was soon
lost sight of among the stirring scenes which crowded
thick and fast upon that incident. There ensued, more-
over, no apparent change in his control of the foreign
department ; he was, as before, entrusted occasionally with
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 149
duties that should properly have fallen to one or an-
other of his colleagues ; and his cordial, almost constant,
association with the President created the impression that
his influence had increased rather than diminished.^*
Even public men high in office continued to believe for a
time that Mr. Seward practically ran the administration,
an idea which some of them, in fact, never quite aban-
doned.
As late as 1873, this view was advanced on a notable
occasion by the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, our Min-
ister at the Court of St. James during the Civil War.
He favored the New York legislature, shortly after the
great statesman's death, with a memorial address, which
attracted widespread attention, not so much for its appro-
priate eulogy of Mr. Seward as for its disparagement of
Mr. Lincoln. The President, according to this orator, was
so inferior to the Secretary of State " in native intellec-
tual power, in extent of acquirement, in breadth of philo-
sophical experience, and in the force of moral discipline,"
that he allowed his minister to direct the affairs of the
nation in the Executive's name. Lincoln, asserted Mr.
Adams, had consequently reaped honors which he owed
for the most part to Seward's labors, and which it was
the duty of history to reapportion.^ Here was manifest
error ; but panegyric, especially when pronounced upon
a recently departed leader by a loving follower, has its
privilege. Hence the address, notwithstanding its semi-
official character and the eminence of its author, might
have been lightly passed over by the historian of to-day
if it had not, at the time it was delivered, evoked an
important reply. This was published by ex-Secretary
Welles, upon the request of Montgomery Blair, the only
other surviving member of the Lincoln cabinet.^^ They
agreed that the eulogist had entirely misapprehended
the relations between the two men, and that, whatever
might be said of Mr. Seward's ability, the President, not
he, had been master of the situation. "Indeed," wrote
I50 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Mr. Welles, " the whole language, tone, tenor, sentiment,
and intent of the address are to elevate Mr. Seward
and depreciate Mr. Lincoln; to award to the Secretary-
honors that clearly belong to the President ; to make it
appear that the subordinate controlled and directed the
principal; that the Secretary of State was de facto Presi-
dent, and the President himself a mere locum tenens,
incompetent for the place from the want of ' experience '
and ' previous preparation.' Mr. Seward had influence in
the administration, but not control. His mental activity,
the ' marvelous fertility of his pen,' his proneness to exer-
cise authority and to make himself conspicuous on every
important subject and occasion, imposed on admiring and
willing friends, who, like Mr. Adams, persuaded them-
selves that one so active and prominent must be the
moving and directing spirit of the administration. . . .
To those who knew Abraham Lincoln, or who were at all
intimate with his administration, the representation that
he was subordinate to any member of his cabinet, or that
he was deficient in executive or administrative ability, is
absurd." ^^
Upon this testimony and more like it, throughout
Mr. Welles's monograph, we infer that the Secretary of
State — appearances to the contrary notwithstanding —
must have stepped back to the place so firmly yet cour-
teously pointed out by the President, in the little private
interlude which closed their first four weeks of office.
From that time to the end, Seward knew Lincoln to be
his master. With a grace peculiarly his own, the Secre-
tary adapted himself to this unexpected development.
His every action seemed to say, as did the fair penitent
of the house of Capulet, —
" Pardon, I beseech you !
Henceforward I am ever ruled by you."
When his inclinations or purposes conflicted with those
of his chief, he gave way — nay, more, he put forth all
his powers to carry out Mr. Lincoln's wishes. " There is
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 151
but one vote in the cabinet," the minister once declared,
" and that is cast by the President." ^ How complete was
the submission of the speaker, himself, may be gathered
from a few well-known incidents.
Seward's senatorial career, particularly his experience
on the Foreign Relations Committee, fitted him, in Mr.
Lincoln's eyes, for the management of the State Depart-
ment. In planning his administration, the President-elect
had said : —
"One part of the business. Governor Seward, I think
I shall leave almost entirely in your hands ; that is, the
dealing with those foreign nations and their govern-
ments." ^*
Nevertheless, Mr. Lincoln required important questions
to be laid before him, and, when occasion demanded, he
did not hesitate to take the guiding hand himself. This
was the case a few weeks after the episode of the
"Thoughts," when the British government recognized,
with unseemly haste, the belligerency of the Confeder-
ate States. England's unfriendly attitude irritated Mr.
Seward out of his habitual diplomatic composure to such
a degree that the letter of instruction, which he wrote for
Mr. Adams, our Minister in London, was more forcible
than wise. Had the despatch, as it stood, been sent abroad
and read, in accordance with custom, to her Britannic
Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, serious
difficulties with England might have ensued. This would
hardly have suited the President's maxim, "One war at
a time " ; so, retaining the document, he subjected it to
a critical revision. Striking out some of the most offen-
sive expressions and modifying others, he transformed an
international fire-brand into a harmless diplomatic note.
When the paper was returned to the author, its erasures
and interlineations must have recalled his labors of three
months before, upon the inaugural address. If so, the
difference in the circumstances, probably, did not escape
him. Mr. Seward's changes had, properly enough, been
152 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
suggested in a separate letter ; the President's were made,
without ceremony, on the draft itself. Mr. Lincoln's cor-
rections, moreover, although they materially altered the
letter, in its general tone and purpose, were, unlike Mr.
Seward's, — with a few slight deviations, — literally ob-
served. For the Secretary of State took his lesson in
diplomacy as meekly as he had, a few weeks before,
received one in politics.^
Seward's blunders in the Adams despatch were grave.
Together with his Quixotic scheme for continental wars,
they naturally impaired the President's confidence in his
judgment on foreign affairs. As international problems
of importance arose, Mr. Lincoln fell into the practice
of consulting not only his Secretary of State, but other
advisers, in the cabinet and out of it, as well. Chief
among these was Charles Sumner. His position as chair-
man of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, his
familiarity with diplomatic questions, his acquaintance
with European statesmen, and his ripe scholarship ren-
dered his opinions of particular value to the President.
Mr. Lincoln even went so far as to call the Senator and
the Secretary into council together. When, as happened
in several instances, Sumner's views were opposed to
Seward's, the President decided between them. And his
decision was not always in the minister's favor. Mr.
Seward's humiliation at this compulsory division of his
functions with another was hardly alleviated by the fact
that that other represented a wing of their party intensely
inimical to him. Once, upon being answered by Mr.
Lincoln with an opinion from Sumner, he hotly exclaimed
that there were " too many Secretaries of State in
Washington." ^® But such outbreaks were rare ; and champ
as he might, when the team was doubled, Seward stayed
in the traces.''^
What was true as to foreign matters was equally the
case in domestic affairs. Here also Mr. Lincoln, whenever
he saw fit to do so, exercised over Mr. Seward supreme
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 153
authority. This is strikingly shown in one of the famous
episodes of the war. Early in 1865, the President of the
Confederacy was influenced by Francis Preston Blair,
Senior, to appoint a peace commission for informal con-
ference with the Federal government. President Lincoln,
having directed Secretary Seward to meet the southern
representatives, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell,^
at Fortress Monroe, handed him written instructions which
read : —
" You will make known to them that three things
are indispensable — to wit : first, The restoration of the
national authority throughout all the States ; second,
No receding by the Executive of the United States on
the slavery question from the position assumed thereon
in the late annual message to Congress, and in preceding
documents ; third. No cessation of hostilities short of an
end of the war, and the disbanding of all forces hostile
to the government.
" You will inform them that all propositions of theirs,
not inconsistent with the above, will be considered and
passed upon in a spirit of sincere liberality. You will
hear all they may choose to say and report it to me. You
will not assume to definitely consummate anything." ^^
With these — the orders of a master to his servant —
Mr. Seward set out. Not many hours later, a despatch
from General Grant,^" who had received the southern
commissioners within his lines at City Point, led the
President to think that he, himself, might accomplish
more than his Secretary of State. The fact that the mis-
sion had been formally confided to Mr. Seward, and with
minute instructions, did not deter Mr. Lincoln from tak-
ing it out of his hands. Hastening after the Secretary,
he joined him previous to the conference, and, without
so much as by your leave, took the northern side of the
discussion under his own direction.
Truly, Seward's over-zealous eulogist blundered in mag-
nifying the subaltern at the captain's expense. Yet, not
154 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
a few of Lincoln's biographers have erred as badly, in
the opposite direction. Perhaps they thought to increase
the President's inches by belittling the cabinet officer who
stood so near him — or, did their eyes, full of Lincoln's
dominating figure, fail to take in Seward's actual stature ?
Be that as it may, they render the greater man's fame
no service by underrating the powers of the subordinate,
whom — as we have seen — he bent completely to his will.
Indeed, justice to Lincoln, no less than to Seward, re-
quires that the Secretary receive full credit. The records
of the State Department, during that most critical epoch
in the nation's foreign affairs, bear abundant testimony to
Mr. Seward's brilliant labors. Granting his occasional
mistakes of method or policy, in coping with the trained
diplomatists of Europe, our Secretary's severest critics
among his own countrymen should at least acknowledge,
as did Earl Russell, his foremost British opponent, that
he evinced singular and varied ability. Only talents of a
superior order could, in fact, have conducted the State
Department through the dark hours of the Civil War.
With a distracted country behind him, and the two most
powerful governments of Christendom threatening from
both sides, in ill-concealed hostility, Mr. Seward achieved
results that fixed his place high, if not highest, on the
roll of American foreign ministers.
No one, it is safe to say, appreciated the Secretary at
his true value so accurately as the President. In his
admiration of Mr. Seward, he overlooked the mistakes,
supplemented the important labors, on occasion, with
necessary touches of his own shrewd common sense, and
kept the brilliant talents employed for the best interests
of the country. Mr. Lincoln, it is true, privately contem-
plated, in at least two recorded instances, the removal of
Seward ; ^^ but he gave his Secretary, none the less, unwa-
vering public support. Of this aid Mr. Seward, now and
then, stood greatly in need. When military reverses or
administrative troubles came, he was, for a time, because
POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 155
of his reputed power in the government, held responsible
by the people ; while Radical leaders, taking advantage of
every opening, tried in season and out to influence the
President against him." As these unrelated attempts all
failed, Seward's enemies resorted to organized attacks.
Early in September, 1862, a committee of prominent New
Yorkers, led by the venerable son of Alexander Hamilton,
called upon Mr. Lincoln ostensibly to urge " a change of
policy." They represented, according to their own state-
ment, not only the views of the dissatisfied Republican
element in the Empire State, but of five New England
Governors as well. The animus of their criticisms soon
became apparent to the President, who, in the midst of
the heated discussion that ensued, angrily exclaimed : —
" You, gentlemen, to hang Mr. Seward would destroy
the government." ^'
Exit the wise men of Gotham — sadder, though not
wiser, than when they came. For despite Lincoln's atti-
tude toward them, the factional opposition against his
Secretary of State lost none of its momentum. On the
contrary, it made such headway by the middle of Decem-
ber that a caucus of Republican Senators voted to demand
Seward's dismissal; but even these formidable enemies
failed to break down the President's protection. With
what courage and adroitness he defended Seward, and
how thoroughly he put the attacking party to rout, will be
told, with all its dramatic details, in the story of that
other cabinet officer who shared the defeat. It is enough
to say here that our powerful minister gladly found safety
behind the man whom, not many months before, he had
thought to thrust into the background. After the repulse
of the senatorial cabal, moreover, Lincoln made short
work of those who came to undermine the Secretary of
State. He shielded Seward against all such assaults, and
kept him secure in his high office to the end.
Small wonder that the respect, which the Secretary
had early learned to show his chief, became mingled with
156 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
a warmth of personal devotion that has not, in similar
relations of our history, been surpassed. Renouncing his
own aspirations, Mr. Seward dedicated himself, without
reserve, to the President's political fortunes, as well as to
the success of his administration, so far as it might be
achieved by the State Department.^* The minister's con-
duct, as the bond between the two men strengthened, said
— or seemed to say — with old Adam : —
** Master, go on, and I will follow thee.
To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty."
To the last gasp, indeed. For when Lincoln was mur-
dered, the assassins, as if their foul work might otherwise
have been incomplete, struck another blow that was to
send Seward after him. It failed to cut off the springs of
life, and he was left behind to carry — in a sense — alone,
the burden these two had so affectionately borne together.
A few years Seward tarried. Then, full of days and hon-
ors, he too was laid at rest. On his tomb, in Fort Hill
cemetery, at Auburn, those who loved him inscribed no
word of all his triumphs. Looking back through the try-
ing scenes of the war and seeming to see him again at the
President's side, they recalled an epitaph that Seward,
himself, had, in his prime, selected.^^ So they carved on
the stone : —
" He was faithful."
Had the master whom the departed statesman served
stood by, he might well have pronounced, as of old, the
familiar formula : —
"Approved. — A. Lincoln."
CHAPTER V
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN
The man who divided with Lincoln and Seward the
highest honors in the Republican National Convention
of 1860 was Salmon Portland Chase. He received on
two of the three ballots for the presidential nomination
the third largest nmnber of votes. The figures, them-
selves, in comparison with those of the two foremost
candidates, were small ; for not even all the delegates
from Ohio, his own State, gave Mr. Chase their support.
Nevertheless, if the suffrages of the Convention had been
based — to the exclusion of other considerations — upon
national prominence, reputed ability, and party services,
he would have stood second to Seward, alone. Like that
eminent leader. Chase had twice been Governor of a great
commonwealth, and had twice been elected to the United
States Senate. In these high places his acts, no less than
his principles, had embodied the finest aspirations of the
Convention. Many of its members, indeed, who withheld
from him their votes paid tribute privately to the merits
of his illustrious career.
Chase belonged to that class of strenuous nation build-
ers who, for lack of a better title, have been termed
Western Yankees. After graduation from Dartmouth
College, in his native State, he had resorted to the twin
stepping-stones on which so many Americans have at-
tained eminence — school-teaching and law. Admitted to
the bar in his twenty-second year, he had taken up his
residence in Cincinnati, with the business, literary, and
social life of which he soon became actively identified.^
Professional success, together with an honorable position
158 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
in the community, were within the newcomer's reach, when
he had seemingly brushed them aside by lending his tal-
ents to the small knot of despised Abolitionists who
braved, in the early thirties, the pro-slavery prejudices
of southern Ohio. Cincinnati's interests were so closely
interwoven with those of the black belt beyond the river
that her citizens, especially, held the reformers in detesta-
tion. As was to be expected, the young lawyer's course
in allying himself with the so-called disturbers of the
public peace had estranged influential friends and clients,
who saw, or thought they saw, in this association his
inevitable ruin.^ At some risk to himself, he had, in the
summer of 1836, confronted a mob on its way to attack
James G. Birney ; and, a few months thereafter, when
that friend of the negroes was indicted for harboring a
female slave. Chase had appeared in his defence. The
fugitive, herself, despite the plea of the same foolhardy
advocate, was returned to bondage, but her race had gained
a champion. So frequently thereafter had Chase acted as
counsel for fugitive slaves and those who befriended them
that he had been derisively nicknamed " attorney-general
for runaway negroes." The duties of this fanciful office,
unprofitable as they were unpopular, he had cheerfully
accepted ; yet adverse decision upon decision had taught
him that the anti-slavery cause was to be won, not at the
bar, but in the forum.
To the field of politics, therefore. Chase had carried his
ideals, only to find that there, as in law, they were heavy
handicaps. Neither of the two great parties, Whigs nor
Democrats, — he had tried them both, — was prepared, at
the time, for anti-slavery principles. So, foregoing the
preferment that his talents might have won for him in
such powerful organizations. Chase had affiliated himself,
usually as a master mind, with the unsubstantial factions
— Liberty-men, Independent Democrats, Free-soilers, and
what not — which struggled one after another to give the
cause a political standing. When at last one of these
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 159
bodies chanced to gain a foothold, there came to pass
something like the miracle promised in the Scriptures,
— he who had lost his life for his conscience's sake had
found it. A dead-lock in joint session of the Ohio legis-
lature, during the winter of 1848-49, had left the balance
of power in the hands of two Independent Free-soilers ;
and so skilfully had they exercised it as to compel the
election of Mr. Chase to the United States Senate. There,
political accident as he was, without experience in pub-
lic office, and without recognition by either of the two
parties which divided legislative business, he had before
the expiration of his term taken rank as a leader among
such anti-slavery giants as Hale, Sumner, Seward, Wade,
Hamlin, and Fessenden. When these men and others,
equally eminent, established the Republican Party, Chase's
enthusiasm for its principles, no less than his talent for
political organization, had again carried him to his accus-
tomed place in the front rank. Scarcely had he com-
pleted his senatorial labors, when he had led the Ohio
branch of the new party to a victory that placed him in
the Governor's chair. Through two administrations — for
he was, as we have said, reelected to the office — Chase
had not only strengthened Republicanism in the State,
but had abundantly contributed, as well, to its upbuilding
in the Nation. His prestige seemed complete when, upon
stepping out of the governorship, he had, by a large and
spontaneous vote, been again elected to the United States
Senate. Still flushed with this triumph, Mr. Chase had,
a few months thereafter, sought yet higher honors at the
Chicago Convention, only to go down, in his first signal
defeat, before Abraham Lincoln.
The man from Illinois felt kindly toward the Ohio
leader. Mr. Chase was one of the few distinguished
statesmen who had sympathized with Mr. Lincoln in his
memorable canvass for the Senate against Stephen A.
Douglas. On that occasion, the Governor had, like Gid-
dings, Cor win, Colfax, and Cassius M. Clay, come from
i6o LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
beyond the limits of the State to aid the Republican can-
didate.^ In Lincoln's mind, moreover, Chase was coupled
with Seward as one of the two great captains who, having
guided the anti-slavery hosts through the wilderness, were
entitled to lead them into the promised land.^ When the
National Convention decided otherwise, it was a change
of votes among Chase's adherents that had turned the
scale in the Illinoisan's favor ; ^ and when the latter was
elected to the presidency, none of his rivals for the
nomination had given him more loyal support than had
the Senator-elect from Ohio. Add to these circumstances
that the Westerner, Chase, though an Independent, was
credited to the Democratic element in the new party, as
Seward, an eastern man, represented the Whigs, and we
comprehend why Mr. Lincoln, beginning the construction
of his carefully balanced cabinet with the New Yorker,
should assign the second place in it to the famous Ohioan.
No sooner had Seward accepted his appointment than
Chase was summoned by telegraph to Springfield. Learn-
ing of his arrival, the President-elect, with the disregard
of formality habitual to him, called on the visitor, at his
hotel. " I have done with you," said Mr. Lincoln, " what
I would not perhaps have ventured to do with any other
man in the country — sent for you to ask you whether you
will accept the appointment of Secretary of the Trea-
sury, without, however, being exactly prepared to offer it
to you." ^ The other replied that he desired no cabinet
office, and that, if he did, he could not easily reconcile
himself to a subordinate one. Whereupon Mr. Lincoln
explained that he had tendered the portfolio of State to
Mr. Seward, as the generally recognized leader of the
Republican Party, with the intention, if he declined, of
offering it to Mr. Chase ; but that, as it had been accepted,
the next important post in the cabinet was probably at
the visitor's command. " I replied," wrote Mr. Chase in
his account of the interview, " that I did not wish, and
was not prepared to say that I would accept that place if
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN i6i
offered." He graciously added, however, that the appoint-
ment of Mr. Seward to the Department of State would
remove his objections to a subordinate office, if he should
conclude to accept one, under any conditions. " Every-
thing was left open," to quote Mr. Chase, when the two
men parted ; but it was understood, throughout the coun-
try, that he would probably be Secretary of the Treasury.
This prospect, as we have seen, was distasteful in the
extreme to Seward's friends. They strove to shut Chase
out of the cabinet — how earnestly and how fruitlessly
has already been narrated. Nor were they the only oppo-
nents of the appointment. Yet Mr. Lincoln's esteem for
the man, as well as his confidence in the political wisdom
of the selection, suffered no diminution during the two
months of partisan bickerings that intervened between
their conference and the inauguration of the new admin-
istration. One of its earliest acts was to lay before the
Senate the President's proposed cabinet — with the Trea-
sury assigned to Mr. Chase.
That gentleman's attitude, however, was now found to
have undergone somewhat of a change. The good temper
with which he had laid aside his pretensions to the highest
cabinet prize, in Seward's favor, must have been sorely
tried by the efforts of that leader's friends to exclude him
altogether. They had not succeeded in this, it is true, yet
Seward's ascendancy over the incoming administration
was generally conceded, and it boded no good to Chase's
personal ambitions. Under these conditions, a place in the
untried Lincoln's parti-colored cabinet ■ — face to face as
it was with a crisis, serious beyond measure — looked less
inviting than ever to a Senator with his full term before
him. In the Upper House, Chase could, unhampered,
advance his principles and his political fortunes together.
His private estate, too, which was not in a flourishing con-
dition, might properly be improved, while he held a legis-
lative office ; but as Secretary of the Treasury, all roads
to profit — professional or otherwise — would be closed to
1 62 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
him. Moreover, — and this was of much importance to a
person of Mr. Chase's temperament, — his pride had been
piqued at the way in which the offer of the appointment
originally came to him. •' Had it been made earlier," he
said, " and with the same promptitude and definiteness
as that to Mr. Seward, I should have been inclined to
make some sacrifices." ^ By the time the formal nomina-
tion reached the Senate, therefore, Chase had practically
decided not to accept a cabinet office. He had, in fact,
already taken his seat in the upper chamber ; but hap-
pened, at the moment, to be absent. Learning upon his
return that his name had been presented for the Treasury
portfolio and unanimously confirmed, he hastened before
the President to decline. TVhat took place at that inter-
view is not precisely known. Chase came, as Seward had
a few hours before, with a refusal, on the very eve of sail-
ing, to embark in Lincoln's shaky craft. Like Seward,
Chase was somehow influenced by that raw captain, with
his gently masterful ways, to reconsider, and like him,
still, he stepped on board the following day, signed for
the voyage.
As the ship which carried the fate of a nation cast
loose from her moorings and stood out for the open sea,
already churning in the teeth of the gathering storm, a
stranger, glancing over her group of officers to discern by
appearance, if he might, which one of them had been
entrusted with so perilous a command, must have quickly
passed over the uncouth-looking Lincoln to single out,
from among those about him, the imposing figure of
Salmon P. Chase. He looked the part. His tall, well-
proportioned frame supported a massive head. Every line
of the expressive face, from dome-like forehead to firm,
smooth-shaven chin, described a curve of virile beauty.
Nature has been so lavish to but few of our public leaders,
and by none of them have personal advantages been borne
with greater dignity. This stately presence was reenf orced,
moreover, by a mind as vigorous as it was cultivated. A
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 163
lover of literature, with three modern languages at com-
mand, a good classical scholar, — as college men go, —
a well-trained lawyer of judicial temperament, a close
reasoner, a master of exposition, a fluent writer, an earnest
worker. Chase was equipped for any task that his restless
ambition might impose. As an author of political procla-
mations and party platforms, he had no peer. To his
talents in this direction the resolutions and address of the
Liberty Party, at the Ohio State Convention in 1841 ;
the platform adopted by the same organization in the
National Convention of 1843 ; the Address to the Peo-
ple, published by the Southern and Western Liberty
Convention of 1845 ; the resolutions and address adopted
by the People's State Convention of Ohio in 1848 ; the
National Free-soil platform of that year ; the platform of
the Free Democracy adopted at Pittsburg in 1852 ; and
the Appeal of the Independent Democrats in Congress
to the People of the United States ^ in 1854, bear abun-
dant testimony. Equal distinction as an orator cannot be
ascribed to Mr. Chase. A slight impediment in speech
rendered him, like the great Hebrew emancipator, " of
a slow tongue." He lacked, moreover, the wit, play of
fancy, sympathetic fervor, and charm of persuasion so es-
sential, ordinarily, to political eloquence. " Light without
heat " was how a statesman who became one of his senato-
rial colleagues characterized Chase's utterances, and the
speaker might have added, in this connection at least,
that ancient definition of equity upon which the phrase
was modeled — " mind without passion." The mental pro-
cesses of the man, on the stump no less than in the Senate,
were as dignified as his carriage. Disdaining, for the most
part, the familiar devices of rhetoric and elocution, by
which anti-slavery orators, during the generation before
the war, usually appealed to popular emotions, he addressed
himself to the calm judgment of his audiences, with a
freedom from personal animus, a fidelity to clearly stated
facts, and a force of logic, as refreshing in those heated
1 64 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
days as they were convincing. When it is recalled, too,
that he spoke with the earnestness of profound conviction
and, perforce, with a deliberation which imparted to his
words values almost oracular, we can comprehend why
his speeches, despite their shortcomings, strengthened
rather than impaired his hold on so high a place in party
leadership. Not less important, withal, than Mr. Chase's
intellectual attainments was a rich endowment of " that
other wisdom," to use his own words, " whose name is
courage." During the twenty years of vehement politics
which intervened between the first convention of the Lib-
erty-men and the triumph of the Republican Party, he
had been faithful to principles, under conditions that put
his pluck severely to the test. For, having determined a
certain course to be the right one, he had pursued it with
an energy well-nigh tireless, and a singleness of purpose
which would brook no compromise. Deeply religious by
temperament and training, he recognized in his creed
an ever-present obligation to employ great powers right-
eously. Indeed, his private as well as his public life was
governed by so pure a spirit of integrity, on so lofty a
plane of duty, that men, not unmindful at the same time
of his noble bearing, likened him to a Roman statesman,
in the golden days of the ancient Republic.
The reverse of the medal was not so pleasing. Mr.
Chase had the defects that too often accompany high
qualities. Those very virtues, which so distinguished him,
cast long shadows over his nature. Conscientious to an
extreme, he looked upon the business of life in a mood
that rendered his manner austere — at times, even stern.
His chiseled features usually wore an expression, at least
in public, of rigid reserve. The heavy, firmly pressed lips
rarely relaxed, and the light of humor as seldom shone in
the cold blue-gray eyes. When, at infrequent intervals, he
did unbend, his efforts to be gay were not signally success-
ful ; and for that reason, perhaps, as much as any other,
frivolity in public men met with his disapproval. A de-
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 165
scendant of Puritans and Scotch Covenanters, Chase took
himself, no less than his work, very seriously indeed. The
mass of diaries and letters that he so carefully wrote, and,
for the most part, as carefully preserved, reveal, in minute
detail, with how stately a tread he must have walked
among less decorous mortals. If he threw off his official
robes now and then, to exclaim in the manner of Thur-
low, " Lie there. Lord Chancellor ! " we find no record of
the fact. Given from early manhood, moreover, to habits
of introspection. Chase became, in time, so self-centered
and so egotistic as to lose that sense of proportion which
saves men from overrating the importance of small things.
Sensitive to an uncommon degree, and punctilious as to
the forms of either social or official intercourse, he was
swift to resent any lapse in the respect which he consid-
ered to be his due. For this martinet, though generally
esteemed, had failed to attain popularity. Not only the
people at large, but political associates as well, were, in
the main, repelled by his unsympathetic personality. In
fact, with possibly one or two exceptions, there sprang
up between the great man and other leading Republicans
no warm friendships. Such relations rest, by reason of
their very nature, upon footings of equality, which Chase's
assumption of his own superiority, together with his ever-
pressing ambition to stand a little higher than those around
him, put out of the question. He was genial enough, it is
true, at his own fireside, toward the family that almost
worshiped him, as well as toward the friends and politi-
cians who were willing to do him homage. Especially
was this so in the case of certain brilliant young men,
whose devotion he repaid with affectionate patronage ; yet
hardly less cordial, it must be admitted, was the attitude
of their " chief " — if we may use the title in which Chase
delighted — toward the unscrupulous self-seekers, syco-
phants, and scamps, who easily played upon his vanity.
An almost childish susceptibility to flattery so warped his
judgment of character that he could with difficulty be
1 66 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
brought to see faults in any of the persons who admired
or supported him. And what, after all, if some of his
followers were unworthy? — '"The immortal gods,'" he
seemed to say, '"accept the meanest altars' ; why not I?"
Incense, whether burned by good men or bad, was equally
grateful to his nostrils, even while it enveloped him in an
atmosphere of adulation, through which the wisest path
was not always discernible. Betrayed repeatedly into error
by the imperious temper thus developed, Chase, as a rule,
knew no will among his associates but his own. Indeed,
the lesson of occasional subordination, important as it is
to those who would command, he had entirely failed to
learn. So imbued was he with a sense of his superiority,
and so accustomed to its unquestioned recognition, that
when, in his fifty-fourth year, he reluctantly became Mr.
Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, he might most fitly
have been described, as to certain minor aspects of his
character, at least, by the homely word — spoiled.
Unfortunately for himself, as well as for the administra-
tion of which he formed a part, Mr. Chase's proneness to
assert himself was, as in Seward's case, heightened by the
conditions under which he entered upon his duties. Suc-
ceeding to the depleted treasury and the heavily increased
national debt that constituted together an important con-
tribution of the Buchanan regime to the Confederate
cause, he found the credit of the government seriously
impaired. Before measures for its restoration could be
taken, the outbreak of the Civil War cut the country in
two, swept the South with its wealth of staples out of the
Union, paralyzed trade for a time, bankrupted many of
the northern merchants, whose accounts were repudiated
by their customers in the seceded States, and brought Mr.
Chase — unprepared as he was by adequate training or
experience — face to face with a problem as perplexing as
any that has ever tried the sagacity of a finance minister.
Sir Robert Peel's famous description of Baring, " seated
on an empty chest, by the pool of bottomless deficiency,
\
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 167
fishing for a budget," fitted the American Secretary to a
nicety. How, under existing circumstances, he could raise
funds for what proved to be the most costly military
struggle in history, was the question. The average re-
quirements throughout the war of over $2,000,000 a day
could not be supplied, to any extent, by foreign loans.
European bankers — some of them in sympathy with the
Confederacy, others in doubt as to Union success — closed
their coffers, at least during a considerable part of the
conflict, against northern securities. Nothing, in conse-
quence, was left to Mr. Chase, for a time, but the crippled
resources of the loyal States. As even these means were
in the hands of a people unaccustomed to direct taxation
and prejudiced against public debt, some conception may
be formed as to the magnitude of his task. That this
was well performed must be conceded, notwithstanding
adverse, and in the main valid criticism by experts on
the economic soundness of certain measures. These mea-
sures served with others, be it remembered, to supply
the government's seemingly unlimited wants — to outdo,
in fact, the marvels of Fortunatus and his inexhaustible
purse. For, from the money-bag in the chapbook ro-
mance, coin could presumably be taken out only through
the opening by which it had passed in ; but " the spigot
in Uncle Abe's barrel," as Mr. Chase dolefully expressed
it, was " twice as big as the bung-hole."
The rich stream, nevertheless, did not run dry, neither
did it submerge the nation in that flood of financial dis-
aster, which was feared by many Americans, and periodi-
cally predicted by the most influential organs of British
public opinion. As it happened, these discouragements
merely rendered more brilliant the eventual triumphs of
the Treasury — triumphs due, in no small degree, be it
said, to the patriotism of the northern people, the victo-
ries of Union armies, and the cooperation of a loyal Con-
gress ; yet credited, naturally enough, to the department
of finance, and, above all, to the statesman at its head.
1 68 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Never before had even he drunk so deeply of the spark-
ling cup. Men compared him with Turgot and Necker,
with Hamilton and Grallatin. Indeed, some of his admir-
ers, abroad as well as at home, indulged in extravagancies
of praise that might have enlarged the self-esteem of a
statesman less egotistic than Salmon P. Chase.
If anything was lacking to confirm the Secretary's be-
lief in his own importance, it was supplied by the Presi-
dent himself. Mr. Lincoln had neither capacity nor taste
for financiering. The science of dollars and cents is not
likely to interest a man who defines wealth, as he did, to
be " simply a superfluity of what we don't need." His
business undertakings, in early life, had been signally
unsuccessful, — to such a degree, in fact, that upon the
occasion of his first election to the Illinois legislature, he
had to borrow the money for a presentable suit of clothes,
and his fare to the Capital. Twenty-six years later, a busy
and what should, at the same time, have been a lucrative
practice had not netted enough cash to defray the ex-
penses of his inauguration journey.® So, by a significant
coincidence, he had been under the necessity of traveling
to Washington as he had to Vandalia, on a friendly loan.
Lincoln's deficiency in what his friend and former part-
ner, William H. Herndon, termed " money sense " was
frankly summed up by the President himself one day,
during a period of financial stress, when Chase desired to
introduce to him a delegation of bankers, who were assem-
bled to discuss an important phase of the money question.
" Money ! " exclaimed Mr. Lincoln, " I don't know
anything about money ! I never had enough of my own
to fret me, and I have no opinion about it any way." ^'^
To another committee of financiers, that waited on him
to find fault with the legal-tender law, he said : —
" Go to Secretary Chase ; he is managing the finances."
In fact, the administration of the Treasury had, wisely,
from the beginning, been entrusted entirely to the head
of the department, who, as long as he supplied the re-
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 169
quired funds, was left, for ways and means, to his own
fertile devices. Nor were those ways, in every respect,
according to usage. The very first treasury bill, drawn
by Mr. Chase and enacted by Congress, at its special
session in July, 1861, empowered him solely to effect
certain loans, though such authority had invariably been
conferred theretofore upon the President and the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, jointly. This innovation, involving
an extraordinary transfer of executive functions, charac-
terized all similar enactments during Chase's incumbency ;
yet Mr. Lincoln, with that freedom from self-assertion
which is already so familiar to us, raised no objection.
Contenting himself with some such comment as, "You
understand these things — I do not," he adopted his
purse-bearer's monetary recommendations, for the most
part, as they were laid before him, without question. He
even permitted Mr. Chase, it is said, to write some of the
financial paragraphs in his messages. Be that as it may,
whatever legislation the Secretary deemed essential was
vigorously urged by the President, not only in his formal
communications to Congress, but in his frequent confer-
ences as well with the influential members of both Houses.
This cooperation, together with a suggestion, now and
then, modestly offered, made up the sum of the Execu-
tive's customary attention to the operations of the Trea-
sury, which, despite its importance, was thus the only one
of the great departments of the government not kept
under his constant supervision.
Mr. Lincoln's practice of non-interference in financial
affairs was not without its exception. But his single de-
viation from the rule — and only one authentic instance
has come under the writer's notice — serves in more than
a rhetorical sense to prove that rule. For it reveals how
ignorant the President was concerning treasury matters,
while it confirms our impression of the latitude habitu-
ally enjoyed by his able Secretary. On the other hand,
the incident evinces how ready was the President, when
lyo LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
aroused, to exercise his authority, even in so unfamiliar a
field, with firmness. He was chatting one day in his office
with his old friend. Marshal Lamon, when the conversa-
tion turned on the greenbacks, then for some time in
circulation. Mr. Lincoln's visitor asked him whether he
knew how the currency was made.
" Yes," answered the President, " I think it is about —
as the lawyers would say — in the following manner, to
wit : the engraver strikes off the sheets, passes them over
to the Register of the currency, who places his earmarks
upon them, signs them, hands them over to Father Spinner,
who then places his wonderful signature at the bottom,
and turns them over to Mr. Chase, who, as Secretary of
the United States Treasury, issues them to the public as
money, — and may the good Lord help any fellow that
doesn't take all he can honestly get of them! " Pulling
a five-dollar greenback from his pocket, he said, with a
twinkle in his eye, " Look at Spinner's signature ! Was
there ever anything like it on earth? Yet it is unmis-
takable. No one will ever be able to counterfeit it."
" But," said the Marshal, " you certainly don't suppose
that Spinner actually wrote his name on that bill, do
you?"
" Certainly I do ; why not ? " was the reply.
Mr. Lamon asked, " How much of this currency have
we afloat?"
Mr. Lincoln stated the amount.
" How many times," continued his friend, " do you
think a man can write a signature like Spinner's in the
course of twenty-four hours ? "
The smile left the President's countenance. He put
the greenback into his pocket and walked the floor. After
a while he stopped, took a long breath, and said : " This
thing frightens me ! " Summoning a messenger, he sent
for the Secretary of the Treasury. Upon Mr. Chase's
arrival, Mr. Lincoln explained the occasion of his alarm,
and asked for a detailed description of how the money
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 171
was handled in the process of manufacture. When the
Secretary had complied with this request, the President
expressed his opinion that there were not sufficient checks
against robbery; but Mr. Chase insisted that the system
had all the safeguards which he could devise. " In the
nature of things," said he, " somebody must be trusted in
this emergency. You have entrusted me, and Mr. Spinner
is entrusted with untold millions, and we have to trust our
subordinates." Words waxed warm between the two,
when Mr. Lincoln said, with some feeling : —
" Don't think that I am doubting or could doubt your
integrity, or that of Mr. Spinner ; nor am I finding fault
with either of you. But it strikes me that this thing is all
wrong, and dangerous. I and the country know you and
Mr. Spinner, but we don't know your subordinates, who are
great factors in making this money ; and have the power
to bankrupt the government in an hour. Yet there seems
to be no protection against a duplicate issue of every bill
struck, and I can see no way of detecting duplicity until
we come to redeem the currency ; and even then, the
duplicate cannot be told from the original." "
The President prevailed. As a result of the discussion,
Mr. Chase made elaborate efforts to secure an improved
system of checks against fraud or error. Calling upon
the Chief of the Currency Bureau for the outline of a
feasible plan, he submitted it, after revision by himself,
to a special commission, consisting of the Acting Assist-
ant Secretary, the Register, and the First Comptroller.
Their report was, upon its receipt, referred back to them
for further consideration ; and Senator Sprague, because
of his expert knowledge, was added to their number.
The enlarged commission, however, merely confirmed the
findings of its predecessor. Whereupon all the documents
were placed, for final review, in the hands of the Assist-
ant Secretary of the Treasury, who had recently returned
from a study of the safeguards employed in the Bank of
England and in the Bank of France. Upon his observa-
172 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
tions abroad and the suggestions of the commission were
based a new body of rules for the Currency Bureau.^^
Ample as was the scope of Mr. Chase's authority in
financial matters, it failed to fill the measure of his ad-
ministrative ambitions. He must have been dazzled with
the power conferred upon him, in his own proper sphere ;
for he believed himself, again like Seward, capable of
dominating other departments, as well. Particularly may
this be said of the War Office, over which, throughout
his cabinet career, he strove to ej^ert a certain influence.
" I have been studying the art of war," he once said. " I
can find nothing in it but a calculation of chances and a
quick eye for topography. Were I not so near-sighted, I
would be tempted to resign my place as Secretary for a
command in the field." ^^ So persistently, indeed, was the
martial purpose pursued, that no treasury duties, however
exacting, were allowed to stand in its way. Nor did the
hand on the purse relax, while the other hand reached
for the sword. With both in his grasp, Chase would truly
have been prepared
" to advise how War may, best upheld,
Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold,
In all her equipage."
He might even have gathered strength enough for what
he aspired to be — the essential genius of the conflict. His
hopes in this direction Mr. Lincoln, still further, unavoid-
ably fed. The President not only found it expedient, at
times, to consult with the ever-ready Secretary of the
Treasury on questions purely military ; but he employed
him also, as occasion required, on business which belonged
within the province of the War Department. Other mem-
bers of the cabinet, it is true, were called, now and then,
to the relief of their colleague in that overburdened office ;
yet none of them, we may safely say, were so busy over
its affairs as Mr. Chase, To him, and not to Secretary
Cameron, was committed the task of framing certain offi-
cial orders for the enlistment of troops ; to his direction
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 173
military matters in the western Border States were, during
the earlier stages of the war, largely entrusted ; and to
his recommendations might have been traced important
changes in the fortunes of more than one general officer.
The confidential relations that he managed to establish
with some of the commanders, no less than his familiarity
with their operations in the field, led both the President
and the Secretary of War to ask his aid, as a go-between,
several times when misunderstandings or delicate personal
questions arose. When it was deemed necessary, more-
over, for a council of war to interrogate General McClel-
lan about his plans, Mr. Chase performed the ungrateful
office ; when General McDowell, to his disappointment,
was ordered back from Fredericksburg, during the Penin-
sular campaign. Chase was despatched to the front, with
explanations ; when Lincoln and Stanton made what our
warlike Secretary of the Treasury termed their " brilliant
week's campaign " against Norfolk, he accompanied them;
and when the President held his momentous midnight
conference, after Rosecrans's disaster at Chickamauga, he
was one of the three cabinet ministers present. Mr. Lin-
coln, on several occasions, even went so far as to direct
generals-in-chief to discuss their projects with Mr. Chase ;
and still that gentleman was far from satisfied.
Considerable as was the Secretary's part in these and
similar transactions, they bore together but a small ratio
to all the affairs of the War Department on which he
volunteered assistance or advice. To decline the former
and disregard the latter came as natural to the President,
at some times, as to avail himself of them at others.
Confident of his own strength, he held Chase, as we have
seen, by a free rein ; but whenever they got too far from
their course, the lines stiffened, and one masterful twist
of the wrist brought the honorable Secretary back to his
work. Like Seward, Chase was made to feel the power
which lurked in that slack hand ; unlike him, he never
becaitie reconciled to its sway. From the very outset, the
174 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
man in the Treasury chafed under whatever limitations
were placed upon his authority, but without avail. How
helplessly he kicked against the pricks, his own letters
and diaries reveal, at every turn. A few extracts from
among many instances may not be out of place here.
The administration, to begin with, had hardly gotten
under way before Mr. Chase's impatience at what he
called " the Micawber policy of waiting for something to
turn up " found vent in a letter to the President.
" Let me beg you to remember," it read, in a style
strangely suggestive of Seward's " Thoughts," " that the
disunionists have anticipated us in everything, and that
as yet we have accomplished nothing but the destruction
of our own property. Let me beg you to remember, also,
that it has been a darling object with the disunionists to
secure the passage of a secession ordinance by Maryland.
The passage of that ordinance will be the signal for the
entry of disunion forces into Maryland. It will give a
color of law and regularity to rebellion, and thereby triple
its strength. The custom-house in Baltimore will be seized,
and Fort McHenry attacked — perhaps taken. What
next ? Do not, I pray you, let this new success of treason
be inaugurated, in the presence of American troops. Save
us from this new humiliation. A word to the brave old
commanding general will do the work of prevention.
You, alone, can give the word." ^^
The "word" was not given; nor is it known what
reply, if any, Mr. Lincoln made to this querulous mes-
sage. Its tone was ominous, as well as discordant, for
many other strictures, equally severe or severer, followed
from the same pen. To a private correspondent, some
months thereafter. Chase made this comment : —
" It has been an error, I think, to push forward our
whole army when two thirds of it, skilfully handled,
would have effected the objects gained by the whole.
But the great defect in the operations of the war has
been a lack of vigor and celerity in movement. To make
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 175
up for this, we accumulate immense forces at particular
points, and wait until the enemy retreats, and then occupy
his deserted quarters ! " ^^
To another he wrote, still later, in a similar strain : —
"We have not accomplished what we ought to have
accomplished. We have put small forces where large
forces were needed, and have failed to improve advan-
tages — the advantages we obtained. We have preferred
generals who do little with much, to generals who do
much with little. We blame and praise with equal want
of reason and judgment." ^^
In his diary he noted, at about the same time : —
"Ten days of battle and then such changes — changes
in which it is difficult to see the public good. How singu-
larly all our worst defeats have followed administrative
cr — , no, blunders ! " ^^
Those changes were evidently not made upon Mr.
Chase's recommendations. Indeed, the President's re-
peated disregard of his j&nance minister's military opinions
evoked that officer's bitter faultfinding. He ascribed dis-
asters to the neglect of his advice ; and successes, he as
truculently traced to its influence.
What vexed Chase, withal, more than Mr. Lincoln's
failures to heed his counsels, was the fact that suitable
opportunities for giving them were so infrequent. Com-
plaints on this score abounded in his letters, especially in
those addressed to his friends at home. To one of them he
wrote : —
" Since the incoming of General Halleck I have known
but little more of the progress of the war than any
outsider, — I mean so far as influencing it goes. My
recommendations, before he came in, were generally
disregarded, and since have been seldom ventured. In
two or three conversations I did insist on the removal of
McClellan, and the substitution of an abler and more
vigorous and energetic leader ; on the clearing out of the
Mississippi, and the expulsion of the rebels from East
176 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Tennessee, all of which might have been done. But,
though heard I was not heeded." ^*
To another : —
" I am not responsible for the management of the war,
and have no voice in it, except that I am not forbidden
to make suggestions, and do so now and then, when I
cannot help it." ^^
And to still another : —
" Though charged with the responsibility of providing
means for the vast expenditures of the war, I have little
more voice in its conduct than a stranger to the adminis-
tration — perhaps not , so considerable a voice as some
who are, in law at least, strangers to it. I should be very-
well satisfied with this state of things, if I saw the war
prosecuted with vigor and success. I am only dissatisfied
with it because I cannot help thinking that if my judg-
ment had more weight, it would be so prosecuted." "^
To Governor Brough, after the terrible slaughter of the
Wilderness and Spottsylvania Court House, Mr. Chase
thus unburdened himself : —
" My anxiety is very great ; but departmental adminis-
tration allows me no voice in military matters — not even
in those which most nearly concern the Treasury — and I
can therefore only wait and pray and hope." ^^
There were cabinet meetings, it is true, but Mr. Chase's
conception of how they should be conducted differed
widely from that of the President. This disagreement the
Secretary emphasized, in several spirited letters. One to
Senator John Sherman read : —
"Since General Halleck has been here the conduct
of the war has been abandoned to him by the President
almost absolutely. We — who are called members of the
cabinet, but are in reality only separate heads of depart-
ments, meeting now and then for talk on whatever hap-
pens to come uppermost, not for grave consultation on
matters concerning the salvation of the country — we have
as little to do with it as if we were heads of factories
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 177
supplying shoes or cloth. No regular and systematic
reports of what is done are made, I believe, even to the
President — certainly not to the so-called cabinet. Of
course we may hope for the best — that privilege remains.
As outsiders, too, I suppose we may criticise, but I prefer
to forego that privilege. It is painful, however, to hear
complaints of remissness, delays, discords, dangers, and
to feel that there must be ground for such complaints,
and to know that one has no power to remedy the evils
and yet is thought to have." ^^
To Horace Greeley our disgruntled minister wrote : —
" It seems to me that in this government the President
and his cabinet ought to be well advised of all matters
vital to the military and civil administration ; but each
one of us, to use a presidential expression, turns his own
machine, with almost no comparison of views or consulta-
tion of any kind. It seems to me all wrong and I have
tried very hard to have it otherwise — unavailingly." ^
Commenting on foreign intervention in Santo Domingo
and Mexico, he wrote to the Rev. Dr. Leavitt, one of the
editors of the New York Independent : —
" Had there been here an administration in the true
sense of the word — a President conferring with his cab-
inet and taking their united judgments, and with their aid
enforcing activity, economy, and energy, in all depart-
ments of public service — we could have spoken boldly
and defied the world. But our condition here has always
been very different. I preside over the funnel ; everybody
else, and especially the Secretaries of War and the Navy,
over the spigots — and keep them well open, too. Mr.
Seward conducts the foreign relations with very little let
or help from anybody. There is no unity and no system,
except so far as it is departmental." ^^
That the people around the spigots paid so little at-
tention to the important functionary at the funnel was
especially irritating to the Secretary of the Treasury. He
scolded, in turn, the successive heads of the War Depart-
1 78 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
ment, on the score of extravagance ; yet it should be
observed that his customary attitude toward them was
friendly. For here, as elsewhere, the prime offender, in
his eyes, was Mr. Lincoln. To Secretary Cameron, Chase
complained : —
" The want of success of our armies, and the difficulties
of our financial operations, have not been in consequence
of a want or excess of men, but for want of systematic
administration. If the lack of economy, and the absence
of accountability, are allowed to prevail in the future as
in the past, bankruptcy, and the success of the rebellion,
will be necessary consequences." ^
After the War Department had, for a considerable time,
been under Mr. Stanton's direction, Mr. Chase wrote to
a friend, in Ohio : —
" Nothing except the waste of life is more painful in
this war than the . absolutely reckless waste of means. A
very large part of the frauds which disgrace us may be
traced to the want of systematic supervision ; and yet
what encouragement is there to endeavors toward economy ?
Such endeavors league against him who makes them all
the venality and corruption which is interested in extrav-
agance. Most, if not all, the bitter attacks made upon me
have originated in the spite of the people whose interests
were thought to be affected by my efforts to keep things in
the right direction and under economical management." ^
To another friend he thus lamented : —
" There has been enormous waste and profusion, grow-
ing out of high pay and excessive indulgence. All these
causes tend to demoralization, and we are demoralized. I
cannot go into particulars, but the instances abound. It
is some consolation to me that my voice and, so far as
opportunity has allowed, my example has been steadily
opposed to all this. I have urged my ideas on the Presi-
dent and my associates, till I begin to feel that they are
irksome to the first, and to one or two, at least, of the
second." ^^
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 179
In a letter to General Hooker, the same busy corre-
spondent thus frees his mind : —
" There has been a deal of talk about recalling you, and
placing you in command of the Army of the Potomac,
which one of the chaplains, in a recently published let-
ter, calls, not altogether without reason, ' This poor, old,
strategy-possessed army.' I wish it might be done. But,
of course, my wishes go for little in such matters. What
right, indeed, has a Secretary of the Treasury, whose busi-
ness it is to provide money for the people to spend, to
have any wishes at all about the results of the expendi-
ture ? Is not that exclusively the concern of the President
and of Congress ? I suppose I ought to shut my eyes and
suppress my feelings, but really it is a little hard, when
one thinks one sees how much might be economized of
action, power, and resources, not to say something of what
he thinks and feels." ^
Hooker was but one of several officers to whom Secre-
tary Chase disparaged the administration of which he, him-
self, formed a confidential part. Heedless of the impropri-
ety, at times even the disloyalty of his course, he warmly
condoled with the generals who brought him their griev-
ances, real or fancied, against the President. Fruitless
opposition to Mr. Lincoln's policy, in one instance, more-
over, led Chase to the extreme of urging upon two of
his military correspondents out-and-out insubordination.
This misstep had its origin, to state it briefly, in the
vexed question of emancipation. Mr. Chase persistently
advised that commanders should be permitted to free and
enlist the slaves within their lines ; Mr. Lincoln decided
otherwise. When the President, in the spring of 1862,
annulled General Hunter's proclamation, it was in spite of
Chase's earnest appeal to the contrary. So curtly was the
Secretary brushed aside that he gave vent to his disap-
pointment in even harsher terms than ordinarily. " I have
never," he wrote to Greeley, " been so sorely tried, in all
that I have seen in the shape of irregularities, assumptions
i8o LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
beyond the law, extravagances, deference to generals and
reactionists which I cannot approve ... as by the nulli-
fying of Hunter's proclamation." ^^ But it was not in
Chase's nature to accept a defeat ; so we find him, a few
weeks later, still trying to displace the President's policy
by his own. In the course of a long letter to General
Butler, at New Orleans, he wrote : —
" I shall express only my own opinions ; opinions, how-
ever, to which I am just as sure the masses will and the
politicians must come, as I am sure that both politicians
and masses have come to opinions expressed by me when
they found few concurrents. ... If some prudential con-
sideration did not forbid, I should at once, if I were in your
place, notify the slaveholders of Louisiana that hence-
forth they must be content to pay their laborers wages.
... It is quite true that such an order could not be
enforced by military power beyond military lines ; but it
would enforce itself by degrees a good way beyond them,
and would make the extension of military lines compara-
tively quite easy. It may be said that such an order would
be annulled. I think not. It is plain enough to see that
the annulling of Hunter's order was a mistake. It will
not be repeated." ^"
On the following day. Chase wrote, in the same tenor,
to General Pope, commanding the Army of Virginia.
This letter closed with : —
" If I were in the field, I would let every man understand
that no man loyal to the Union can be a slave. We must
come to this. The public sentiment of the world, common-
sense, and common justice, demand it. The sooner we
respect the demand, the better for us and for our cause." ^^
With the unruly spirit that inspired these futile out-
breaks now and then mingled something very like despair.
For instance, shortly after Mr. Lincoln had reinstated
General McClellan, in the teeth of vehement protests
from Chase and others, this comment was confided to the
diary : —
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN i8i
" Expenses are enormous, increasing instead of dimin-
ishing ; and the ill-successes in the field have so affected
government stocks that it is impossible to obtain money
except on temporary deposit. ... It is a bad state of
things ; but neither the President, his counselors, nor his
commanding general seem to care. They rush on from
expense to expense, and from defeat to defeat, heedless
of the abyss of bankruptcy and ruin which yawns before
us — so easily shunned yet seemingly so sure to engulf
us. May God open the eyes of those who control us, be-
fore it is too late ! " ^
And a letter addressed, some months later, to Wayne
McVeagh contained this outburst : —
" Oh, for a vigorous, earnest, thorough prosecution of
this war ! for a speedy and complete suppression of this
rebellion ! How often does the question come to me with
terrific force ! How much longer can the strain, which
delay and extravagance make, be endured before the
links of credit snap ? " ^
The precious links did not snap. On the contrary, as
the war advanced, they became — with an occasional
period of weakness — more firmly riveted together. But
this fact apparently made no impression on the conduct
of the minister who had them in his keeping ; as he con-
tinued, to the end, his practice of petulant and, for the
most part, bootless criticism. In season and out, in letters
and private journals, in formal council and chance con-
versation, whether he addressed himself to members of
the government circle or to rank outsiders. Chase was the
severe — at times almost hostile — censor of the Presi-
dent and his administration.
In fairness to the Secretary of the Treasury, it must be
conceded that liis charges of extravagance were, especially
during certain periods of un preparedness at the outbreak
of hostilities, warranted by the facts. It is true, moreover,
that the operations of his department were, at times, em-
barrassed by lack of success in the field. And due weight
1 82 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
should be given to the necessity under which he labored,
or believed himself to labor, for combining military with
financial authority, as other statesmen in the world's his-
tory had done before him. His chagrin at finding his
martial activities repressed was therefore not surprising,
particularly when we recall the temperament of the man,
and the expectations which must have been fostered by
what he was occasionally called upon to do in the War
Department, no less than by the extraordinary powers
conferred upon him in his own office. Yet these things
do not justify, or even fully explain, the animus against
the President, so apparent throughout Chase's cabinet
career. For the seed of that antagonism we must look
below the surface — into the very core of the matter.
Chase never entirely forgave Lincoln the latter's vic-
tory at the Chicago Convention. That a man so markedly
his inferior in education and public achievements should
have been preferred to him was as grievous to the Ohio
statesman's self-love as it was irritating to his sense of
equity. That this man, moreover, when he came to the
presidency, should persist in actually running the admin-
istration, while his brilliant Secretary of the Treasury —
so willing at every turn to relieve him of the burden —
remained a mere head of department, hardly allayed the
minister's resentment. The prejudice engendered in the
defeated candidate took deeper root in the disappointed
cabinet minister. Mr. Chase's failures, withal, to sway the
President in military affairs — numerous and, at times,
humiliatiug though they were — did not, by any means,
make up the sum of his rebuffs. On such important
subjects as privateering, early emancipation, concessions
to the Border States, and martial law in places outside
the field of hostilities, our Secretary, do what he would,
could not save his cherished opinions from being swept
aside. Here again, the character, or fancied character,
of the chief who overruled him made his cup of subordi-
nation doubly bitter. The masterful Chase had met his
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 183
master, yet he could not bring himself to the point of
admitting it. Indeed, we find ourselves wondering, as he
returns again and again to the charge, at his inability to
realize how completely he was outclassed ; but the riddle
is read when it is remembered that his judgment of char-
acter was notably defective. This constituted what may
be called the blind side of his make-up. He was, in fact,
so near-sighted that the play of men's features, with their
tell-tale disclosures, was lost upon him ; and so self-cen-
tered, that what he seemed to see in other people was, too
often, the mere reflection of his own prepossessions or pre-
judices. Thus misguided, — to say nothing of the concur-
rent circumstances, — Chase must inevitably have under-
rated Lincoln. The President — so thought his Secretary
of the Treasury — had been elevated by a freak of fortune
to a place which he was incapable of filling ; and, by a
similar chance, the minister, himself, had become enlisted
under a chief who at every point in his bearing seemed
to fall far below that courtly functionary's standards of
statesmanship. Perhaps Mr. Chase, learned though he
was, forgot that truly great rulers make their own stand-
ards. At all events, there was little, if anything, in
Lincoln's simple demeanor, lack of culture, disregard of
formality, and low-leveled humor to warn his Secretary
of the transcendent genius for leadership that, almost
unwittingly to itself, was working out a great destiny.
Hence Mr. Chase presents the phenomenon of encounter-
ing at every turn a force stronger than his own, and
failing entirely to recognize its existence. He had been a
member of Mr. Lincoln's official family more than a year
and a half, when he tactlessly asked a general officer,
who had a grievance against the administration, what he
thought of the President. The officer answered: —
" A man irresolute, but of honest intentions ; born a
poor white in a slave State, and, of course, among aris-
tocrats ; kind in spirit and not envious, but anxious for
approval, especially of those to whom he has been accus-
1 84 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
tomed to look up — hence solicitous of support of the
slaveholders in the Border States, and unwilling to
offend them ; without the large mind necessary to grasp
great questions, uncertain of himself, and in many things
ready to lean too much on others." ^*
The sketch must have been in harmony with our Sec-
retary's own views, for he transferred it carefully to his
diary, with the endorsement that its author was " well read
and extremely intelligent." In truth, Mr. Chase was not
by any means the only eminent man at the Capital who
mistook Lincoln's measure. Disparagement of the Presi-
dent was, at first, the rule rather than the exception. But
as he coped with the problems of the war, one after
another, sagacious men caught glimpses of the power that
was bound up in his quaint, almost grotesque personality,
and revised their estimates to somewhat like proper pro-
portions. Not so, however, with Chase. He never even
approached to justice in a conception of Lincoln, or, if
he did, there is no evidence of it among his voluminous
diaries and letters. When he committed to one of his
journals, after their official connection had ceased, the
admission, " I feel that I do not know him," Chase made
his truest comment on Abraham Lincoln.
The President and his Secretary of the Treasury were,
as far as their personal relations went, at no time heartily
in sympathy with each other. As a matter of fact, one
rarely finds two public men working together so earnestly
for the triumph of the same principles who are, at once, so
essentially dissimilar in social attributes as they happened
to be. Lincoln's ways — unconventional in the extreme —
grated upon the sensibilities of the dignified Chase. To
the Secretary's fondness for forms, pride of intellect,
distaste for humor, and serious, almost ascetic devotion
to his tasks, must be ascribed, in a degree at least, the
absence of cordiality between him and a President who
made no secret of his ignorance, troubled himself not a
whit about precedents, and was reminded, on all conceiv-
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 185
able occasions, of stories hardly constructed according to
classic models. Not the least of Lincoln's offences against
the Chesterfield of his cabinet was the ill-concealed
amusement with which he regarded that gentleman's dis-
pleasure at his levity. The President's bump of reverence
appears to have been so exceedingly flat that the frowns
of an important personage, however great, failed to abash
him. Mr. Chase once told, with evident disgust, how an
old-time crony of Lincoln in the Thirtieth Congress was
permitted to interrupt a meeting of the cabinet. That
body was in session one day, when the doorkeeper an-
nounced that Orlando Kellogg was without and wished
to tell the President the story of the stuttering justice.
Mr. Lincoln ordered the visitor to be ushered in imme-
diately. Greeting Kellogg at the threshold with a warm
grasp of the hand, the President said, as he turned to his
cabinet : —
" Gentlemen, this is my old friend, Orlando Kellogg,
and he wants to tell us the story of the stuttering justice.
Let us lay all business aside, for it is a good story."
So statesmen, as well as affairs of state, waited while
the humorous Kellogg spun his yarn and Lincoln had
his laugh.^ Another cabinet meeting, perhaps the most
momentous in the history of the administration, was dis-
figured, according to Mr. Chase's diary, by similar merri-
ment. The President had called his advisers together in
order to lay before them his draft of the first Emancipa-
tion Proclamation. But before proceeding to this weighty
matter, he mentioned that Artemus Ward had sent him
his new book, and that he desired to read to them a chap-
ter which he had found to be especially funny. Where-
upon Mr. Lincoln regaled his assembled ministers with the
High-Handed Outrage at Utica. It was read with effect,
for Mr. Chase reports that his colleagues, as well as the
President, " seemed to enjoy it very much." Our diarist
excepts the saturnine Stanton, but says nothing about his
own disrelish of the performance. From another source,
1 86 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
however, we learn of disapproval so plainly stamped upon
Chase's countenance that Lincoln, eyeing the solemn-
faced Secretary of the Treasury as he read, laughed more
heartily than ever. In fact, the gentleman's distress
became in itself an object of boisterous hilarity, "and
Lincoln," we are told, " seldom lost an opportunity to
entertain himself and others in this direction." ^ Mr.
Chase naturally felt aggrieved on such occasions. They
hardly served to place him at his ease with the President,
or to render more agreeable to either an intercourse that,
at its best, never reached far beyond the limits of official
requirements.
In strong contrast to the distant relations between
Lincoln and Chase was the cordial good-fellowship which
the President evinced toward Seward. The Secretary of
State appears to have been especially congenial to his
chief. For Mr. Lincoln, of all men, could appreciate a
cabinet minister who, whatever may have been his fail-
ings, submitted loyally, in the main, to superior authority,
fomented no quarrels, and adapted a cheery, resourceful
disposition, with rare felicity, to the President's moods.
Seward's influence with Lincoln was notably greater than
that of Chase — greater, in fact, than that of any of his
colleagues ; but not nearly so great, be it said, as was at
the time generally believed. Great or small, however, the
prestige thus enjoyed by the Secretary of State became
particularly galling to the man in the Treasury. From
their earliest days in the Senate, these two leaders, not-
withstanding their common dislike of slavery and their
previous cooperation on fugitive slave cases, had been, in
a sense, opposed to each other. They had joined hands,
it is true, in the parliamentary struggle against southern
domination ; but the Democratic tendencies of the one,
and the Whig partisanship of the other, had stood in the
way of a friendship that, even under more favorable con-
ditions, would have been practically impossible to men of
such conflicting personalities. They had been associated
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 187
together in the Upper House for several months, when
Chase wrote : —
" I don't know what Seward will do. I have never been
able to establish much sympathy between us. He is too
much of a politician for me." ^
And within a few weeks, following, the Senator from
Ohio complained to his New York colleague of the abuse,
" without any stint," to which he had been subjected by
the latter's friends. Antagonisms aroused at about that
period were not allayed, even after Chase and Seward
had sunk their political differences, for a time, in the for-
mation of the new Republican Party. They became, as
we have seen, rivals for the presidential nomination of
1860 ; and when that prize, as well as the election, went
to Lincoln, they were again pitted against each other in
a race for the ascendancy over a seemingly weak Execu-
tive. How he pressed them both into his cabinet, despite
powerful opposition to such an association, has also been
told. We need only add, for a clear comprehension of
what ensued, that there. Chase, the champion of the radi-
cal anti-slavery men on the one extreme, and Seward, the
representative of the conservative element in the party on
the other, were at variance more than ever.
In their official intercourse, it is true, these two min-
isters maintained a proper decorum. They even cooper-
ated, now and then, amicably together ; but in private,
the Secretary of the Treasury pursued his more favored
colleague with criticisms, no less censorious than those he
so freely visited on the President. To such a degree did
Chase carry this faultfinding, that he could not even with-
hold a comparatively mild expression of it from Seward's
partner and intimate friend, Thurlow Weed. "I told
him," records Mr. Chase in his diary for September 15,
1-862, " I did not doubt Mr. Seward's fidelity to his ideas
of progress, amelioration, and freedom ; but that I thought
he adhered too tenaciously to men who proved themselves
unworthy and dangerous, such as McClellan ; that he
1 88 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
resisted too persistently decided measures ; that his influ-
ence encouraged the irresolution and inaction of the Presi-
dent in respect to men and measures, although personally
he was as decided as anybody in favor of vigorous prose-
cution of the war, and as active as anybody in concert-
ing plans of action against the rebels." ^ These charges,
with others equally telling, constituted the basis of a
widespread hostility to the Secretary of State ; for Chase's
blows against that officer, from within the cabinet, had
evoked more than an echo outside. Indeed, almost every
important occurrence appears to have multiplied Seward's
enemies. Assuming him to be the controlling factor of
the administration, people held him responsible — how
mistakenly has been shown elsewhere — for whatever dis-
pleased them in its policy. The government's unpopular
measures, no less than its errors and mishaps, its disasters
in the field and reverses at the polls, were laid chiefly at
his door. So strong, in fact, ran the current of condem-
nation, through the summer and autumn of 1862, that
it bade fair to sweep him out of the cabinet. Toward
this end the anti-slavery or Chase wing of the Republican
Party, encouraged, if not actually inspired, by the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, especially labored. These Radicals
were irritated out of all patience by the slow-paced con-
servatism which held the preservation of the Union above
the abolition of slavery ; yet they might have taken pains
to look higher than the State Department for the source
of their disappointment, had not Mr. Seward so unre-
servedly identified himself with the President's policy
that it was generally ascribed to him. Some of the Secre-
tary's utterances, moreover, gave grave offence to the anti-
slavery leaders. They determined that nothing short of
his removal from the cabinet would salve their wounded
dignity, and, at the same time, save their cause, by afford-
ing Chase the opportunity of succeeding to the influence
over Lincoln which Seward was supposed to be exerting.
Accordingly, one evening shortly after the third ses-
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 189
sion of the Thirty-seventh Congress had begun, a secret
caucus of Republican Senators, convened for the purpose,
adopted by a small majority a resolution demanding that
the President dismiss Mr. Seward. Upon second thought,
with a view, perhaps, of securing a larger vote, or of
rendering less ojffensive this unprecedented intrusion on
Executive authority, a substitute requesting the recon-
struction of the cabinet was proposed, and almost unani-
mously carried. In fact, what had been a considerable
minority dwindled to one dissenting voice — that of Pres-
ton King, Senator from New York. He hurried from the
meeting to inform Seward, who as promptly, with char-
acteristic tact, sent the President his resignation.
" What does this mean ? " asked Mr. Lincoln in pained
surprise, as he read the note ; and Senator King, enter-
ing at the moment, answered the question. It must have
seemed to the sorely tried President as if his supporters
vied with his opponents to complicate his difficulties. He
called upon Seward later in the evening to talk the matter
over, and in the course of the discussion the Secretary
remarked how relieved he would feel to be freed from
official cares, " Ah yes, Governor," was the rejoinder,
" that will do very well for you ; but I am like the starling
in Sterne's story, * I can't get out.' " ^ And he deter-
mined that Seward should not "get out" either. On the
following morning a formidable committee of nine — Sen-
ators CoUamer, Sumner, Fessenden, Wade, Trumbull,
Grimes, Harris, Howard, and Pomeroy — waited upon the
President with the resolutions of the caucus. In the con-
ference that ensued, the Secretary of State was denounced
by most of the delegation as the evil genius of the gov-
ernment, and Mr. Lincoln was urged to have done with
him. " While they seemed to believe in my honesty," said
the President, describing the interview to the cabinet
after his homely fashion, "they also appeared to think
that when I had in me any good purpose or intention
Seward contrived to suck it out of me unperceived." *^
I90 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Having given the Senators no encouragement beyond
an invitation to return in the evening, Mr. Lincoln sum-
moned his advisers, narrated what had happened, and
made a similar appointment with them. The situation
was critical. To antagonize the senatorial leaders of his
party in the darkest days of the war by refusing to make
the change they desired, might deprive the President of
cooperation that was vital to the success of his admin-
istration. To comply with their request, on the other
hand, would cost him not only the services of a valued
minister, but the support of that minister's followers as
well. In either event, to use a Lincolnian phrase, " the
thing would all have slumped over one way." The dis-
missal of Seward, under the circumstances, would involve,
moreover, a shameful surrender to Chase, and what was
of greater importance than all else, a surrender of Ex-
ecutive power and prerogative at the summons of a legis-
lative cabal, acting without even the semblance of consti-
tutional authority. Here was a supreme test of Lincoln's
mastership. In the very nature of the case, he could seek
no counsel among his customary advisers. The crisis had
to be met, at least as far as tactics went, single-handed ;
and that somehow reminds us again of Lincoln's early
days. It is a far cry from the White House back to
Clary's Grove ; yet, as the representatives of the caucus
file into the Executive Mansion for their evening confer-
ence, we recall a scene in the backwoods settlement, — a
melee of men, an angry onset, and a cool, muscular young
fellow who stands braced against a wall to receive their
combined attack.
When the Senators entered the President's room, they
were taken aback at finding all the members of the cab-
inet, except Mr. Seward, seated around their chief ; and
the cabinet, it must be said, were as greatly surprised
over the meeting as the committee. Thus confronted, the
two parties, with Lincoln acting as a sort of moderator,
entered upon a full and free discussion. The Senators
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 191
made a brisk attack upon the administration, and upon
the Secretary of State, in particular ; the President's
counselors defended themselves, as well as their absent
associate, with spirit. The attitude of the Secretaries was
indicated by Mr. Stanton. " This cabinet, gentlemen,"
said he, " is like yonder window. Suppose you allowed
it to be understood that passers-by might knock out one
pane of glass, — just one at a time, — how long do you
think any panes would be left in it ? " ** Seward's cause
had become, perforce, that of his colleagues. They were
obliged, by the logic of events, to stand as a unit between
him and his assailants. Even Chase, brought to bay, was
forced into turning, after a fashion, against the men who
had come to strengthen his position. He found himself
in a predicament. To agree with the Senators, in their
attacks upon Seward or the administration, though he had
made the identical criticisms to them and to others, was,
in that presence, obviously out of the question. To take
ground effectively against these charges, without stultify-
ing himself, was, under existing conditions, equally impos-
sible. So he joined with his fellow ministers, as best he
could, protesting angrily, the while, against his dilemma,
and expressing regret that he had come. The rest of the
meeting, however, talked itself frankly into a better under-
standing. Before it was dissolved, late in the night, Lin-
coln asked the committee : —
"Do you gentlemen still think Seward ought to be
excused? "
On a formal vote, but four of the eight Senators present
— Wade was absent — answered, " Yes." *^ As the vis-
itors were leaving, one of them, unable to conceal his
chagrin at Chase's apparent double-dealing, said privately
to the President, yet with considerable feeling, that the
Secretary of the Treasury had spoken in a different tone
elsewhere.^ This Lincoln knew well enough. He also
knew what was perhaps beginning to dawn on the minds
of the astute statesmen who had participated in this
192 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
remarkable controversy — his trap had been sprung, and
Chase was fairly caught.
Overnight reflection revealed to the Secretary of the
Treasury how untenable his position had become. His
own withdrawal from the cabinet was apparently the sole
retreat open to his ruffled dignity. So, the next morning,
when the President and some of his advisers met for
further consultation, Mr. Chase offered his resignation.
He held the paper in his hand, but made no motion to
deliver it. Whereupon Mr. Lincoln, we are told, "stepped
forward and took it with an alacrity that surprised and,
it must be said, disappointed Mr. Chase." ** Then the
meeting was at once dismissed. There was no further
need of discussion. From that moment the President
saw his way clear before him. With the resignations of
the rival leaders in his hands, he was master of the situ-
ation. He might retain them both, by treating their with-
drawal as a joint affair, and making the readmission of
the one dependent upon that of the other ; or, if the cab-
inet was to be reconstructed after all, he would be free,
with both of them out, to make such appointments as
should still preserve the balance between their respective
factions. " Yes, Judge," said Lincoln to Senator Harris,
who came upon him as he stood with Chase's letter in
his grasp, " I can ride on now, I 've got a pumpkin in
each end of my bag." ^ Having delivered himself of this
bucolic figure, so nicely expressive of the turn that affairs
had taken, the President sent each of the Secretaries a
note, addressed to them jointly, declining to accept their
resiofnations. " After most anxious consideration," he
wrote, " my deliberate judgment is that the public inter-
est does not admit of it. I therefore have to request that
you will resume the duties of your departments respec-
tively." *® Seward, promptly taking his cue, answered the
following morning : —
" I have cheerfully resumed the functions of this depart-
ment in obedience to your command."
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 193
Chase's lines were not so simple. Realizing that he had
blundered into a false exit, when last on the scene, he
wrote : —
" Will you allow me to say that something you said or
looked, when I handed you my resignation this morning,
made on my mind the impression that having received
the resignations both of Governor Seward and myself, you
could relieve yourself from trouble by declining to accept
either, and that this feeling was one of gratification. . . .
I could not, if I would, conceal from myself that recent
events have too rudely jostled the unity of your cabinet,
and disclosed an opinion too deeply seated, and too gen-
erally received in Congress and in the country, to be
safely disregarded, that the concord in judgment and
action, essential to successful administration, does not
prevail among its members. ... A resignation is a grave
act — never performed by a right-minded man without
forethought or with reserve. I tendered mine from a
sense of duty to the country, to you, and to myself ; and
I tendered it to be accepted. So did, as you have been
fully assured, Mr. Seward tender his. I trust, therefore,
that you will regard yourself as completely relieved from
all personal considerations. It is my honest conviction
that we can both better serve you and the country at this
time as private citizens than in your cabinet." *^
Before the letter could be despatched, word came to
the writer from Seward that he had returned to his post.
This completely disarmed Chase. He would have been
pleased at the removal of the Secretary of State, or even
at the retirement of Seward and himself; but that his
rival should be restored to power, while he returned to
private life, was hardly to his taste. After another day
of perplexity. Chase wrote to the President, also with-
drawing his resignation. He enclosed the unsent letter,
however, and accompanied his reluctant surrender with
reservations that boded no good to the future peace of the
administration. Here the episode closed, but it presents a
194 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
dramatic coincidence that should not be overlooked. The
same sagacity, adroitness, and mastery over men with
which Lincoln had covered Chase's entrance into the cab-
inet, under a storm of opposition from Seward's friends,
had been as successfully employed two years later to pro-
tect Seward, in his turn, against the assaults of Chase's
followers, reenforced though they were by a senatorial
caucus of exceptional influence. Both the great ones had
thus found shelter from each other, under the Presi-
dent's ample shield. Yet the Secretary of the Treasury,
strange to say, still failed to discern what had become so
evident to his colleague of the State Department, — that
the man who could do such things was their superior in
fact, no less than in station.
Ere the winter had elapsed, Mr. Chase again measured
his strength against that of the President. The occasion
arose out of the rejection, by the Senate, of a treasury
nomination. Mark Howard, selected by the head of the
department to be a Collector of Internal Revenue for the
First District of Connecticut, had, through the opposition
of Senator Dixon from that State, failed of confirmation.
In somewhat of a rage, Mr. Chase urged Mr. Lincoln to
renominate his candidate, — who, by the way, was giving
satisfaction under a temporary appointment, — or at least,
to await the Secretary's selection of an equally suitable
person ; but under no circumstances to appoint any one
recommended by the offending Senator. That gentleman,
be it said, had acted entirely within his rights in securing
Howard's rejection ; and Mr. Lincoln had no intention
of disciplining him for so doing. Nor was the President
prepared, however much he may have agreed with his
Secretary in the general theory of appointments, to dis-
regard the wishes of influential legislators. He wrote to
Mr. Chase : —
" After much reflection, and with a good deal of pain
that it is adverse to your wish, I have concluded that it
is not best to renominate Mr. Howard for Collector of
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 19^
Internal Revenue, at Hartford, Connecticut. Senator
Dixon, residing at Hartford, and Mr. Loomis, Represent-
ative of the district, join in recommending Edward Good-
man for the place ; and, so far, no one has presented a
different name. I will thank you, therefore, to send me
a nomination, at once, for Mr. Goodman." ^
Upon receipt of the letter, Secretary Chase penned this
curt reply : —
"Finding myself unable to approve the manner in
which selections for appointment to important trusts in
this department have been recently made, and being
unwilling to remain responsible for its administration,
under existing circumstances, I respectfully resign the
office of Secretary of the Treasury." *^
But before the message was sent. Senator Dixon called
at the Treasury Department. He was in so conciliatory a
mood that a compromise was easily effected. Both parties
agreed to submit the matter at issue to the President for
his further consideration, with the understanding that
Chase should not insist on the renomination of Howard,
while Dixon and Loomis should claim no recognition in
the making of a substitute appointment.^** The Secretary,
laying his resignation aside, accordingly wrote Mr. Lin-
coln the purport of the interview, instead. So nettled was
he, however, at the President's willingness to act counter
to his wishes that he could not forbear, though the occa-
sion had passed, to close the letter with this ultimatum : —
" My only object — and I think you so understand it
— is to secure fit men for responsible places, without
admitting the rights of Senators or Representatives to
control appointments, for which the President and the
Secretary, as his presumed adviser, must be responsible.
Unless this principle can be practically established, I feel
that I cannot be useful to you or the country in my pre-
sent position." ^^
The covert threat of resignation was apparently un-
heeded by Mr. Lincoln. It was enough for him that the
196 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
quarrel, in which he had no personal interest, had been
settled, without alienating either the Secretary or the
Senator. As to the rest, a favorite maxim guided his
course — he never crossed Fox River until he reached
there.
It might seemingly have been better for all concerned
had the President departed, in this instance, from his prac-
tice, sufficiently to arrive at an understanding with Mr,
Chase on the issue thus raised. Yet a glance reveals how
impracticable such a step would have been. The Secretary
of the Treasury took the ground, not without some show
of justice, that, as he was held responsible for so impor-
tant a department, all appointments to its numerous places
of trust, no less than removals therefrom, should be under
his sole control. He insisted, in short, that his substan-
tially unrestricted sway over jfinancial matters ought to
include the rich patronage of the office, as well. This
claim Mr. Lincoln allowed to an unusual degree. Indeed,
so often did he defer to Mr. Chase's desires that the Sec-
retary became incapable of recognizing a reasonable ex-
ception. Consequently when, on rare occasions, personal
or political considerations moved the President to insist
on nominations or dismissals contrary to the minister's
wishes, that gentleman's unruly temper made things as
disagreeable as circumstances allowed. At such times
Lincoln sought to attain his ends with the least possible
friction. Badgered by office-seekers as no American Ex-
ecutive had been before him ; holding the balance between
conflicting sections of a discordant party, largely by means
of his appointments, and dependent upon the good-will of
every element in that party, as only a President can be
during a great civil war, he would not — in fact, could
not — surrender to Chase the entire patronage of the
Treasury, which, it may be added, was then more exten-
sive, perhaps, than that of all the other civil departments
combined. On the other hand, Mr. Lincoln, both on
account of this Secretary's value personally, and because
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 197
of the powerful wing that he represented, wished to avoid
a rupture. So the man in the Treasury, usually, had his
way with the offices ; the man in the White House, now
and then, had his. In either event, the question of abso-
lute control over appointments lay flickering between
them, ready, at the slightest poke among the smouldering
embers, to leap into flame again.
The Howard incident had hardly closed, when a new
squabble about patronage arose. Deeming it necessary to
make sweeping changes in his department at San Fran-
cisco, Mr. Chase invited the three California Congress-
men, Messrs. Low, Sargent, and Phelps, to his office, one
evening, and informed them of the fact. He declared
his determination to remove the leading treasury officers
and to supply their places with men whose names he
announced. His visitors, taken by surprise and believing
his purpose to be irrevocable, offered no objections; but,
as they left the building, they gave free vent to their
anger. A few days thereafter, these Representatives,
Congress having adjourned, left for home by way of New
York. Upon their arrival at the metropolis, Mr. Phelps
took passage for San Francisco, while his colleagues
tarried in the city. Before they were ready to sail, a de-
spatch from Mr. Lincoln recalled them to Washington.
He had just learned, to his surprise and vexation, how
summarily Mr. Chase was about to fill the most impor-
tant Federal offices on the Pacific coast. For not only
had the members of Congress from that section, as we
have seen, been practically ignored by a mere pretence at
consultation, but the President, himself, had also been
kept in the dark. Upon the return of Messrs. Low and
Sargent, the Secretary's plans were speedily revised. It
was too late, in the absence of Mr. Phelps, to consider
the appointments as Mr. Lincoln had intended ; but he
broke Chase's carefully constructed slate, and that stiff-
necked minister's feelings, as the President afterwards
said, were " exceedingly hurt " in the process.
198 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Shortly after the California affair, another clash of
authority arose between Lincoln and Chase, over a trea-
sury office on the Pacific coast. Victor Smith, a friend of
the Secretary, had, at his request, been made Collector of
Customs in the Puget Sound District. The appointee was
eccentric, and deft, to a notable degree, in the gentle art
of making enemies. So wide-spread grew his unpopularity
that Congressmen, Federal officers, and private citizens of
influence united in demanding his removal. Not content
with the letters and petitions which they had poured into
Washington, the people, deeply aroused, sent a deputation
all the way from Puget Sound — a formidable journey
in 1863 — with charges against Smith. The accusations
were referred by the President, for investigation, to the
Secretary of the Treasury, who, throughout the clamor,
had stood stoutly by his friend. But before Mr. Chase
had time for a report, he was called away from the Capital,
on business. During his somewhat protracted absence, the
outcry from the scene of the trouble became well-nigh
intolerable ; and Mr. Lincoln was forced to the conclu-
sion that the public interests required Smith's immedi-
ate dismissal. Steps in this direction had already been
taken, when Mr. Chase returned. He found that a note
had been received at the department, from the President,
ordering a Collector's commission for Henry Clay Wilson,
as Smith's successor. The man so appointed, however, had
recently died. As soon as Mr. Lincoln discovered the
fact, he wrote to Mr. Chase, recalling the order and
directino' a commission to be made out for Frederick A.
Wilson, instead. Accompanying the first formal message
was a private letter from the President, which read : —
" I address this to you personally rather than officially,
because of the nature of the case. My mind is made up
to remove Victor Smith as Collector of the Customs at the
Puget Sound District. Yet in doing this I do not decide
that the charges against him are true. I only decide that
the degree of dissatisfaction with him there is too great
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 199
for him to be retained. But I believe he is your personal
acquaintance and friend, and if you desire it I will try to
find some other place for him.""
Mr. Chase felt that both he and his Collector had been
grievously wronged. " I had not thought it possible," he
replied, " that you would remove an officer of my depart-
ment without awaiting the result, although somewhat
delayed, of an investigation, directed by yourself ; and
appoint a successor, for whose action I must be largely
responsible, without even consulting me on the subject."
He restated, at some length, what he deemed to be his
rights in such matters, and concluded with : —
" The blank commission which you direct me to send
you is inclosed ; for to obey your directions, so long as I
shall hold office under you, is my duty. It is inclosed,
however, with my most respectful protest against the
precedent, and with the assurance that if you find any-
thing in my views to which your own sense of duty will
not permit you to assent, I will unhesitatingly relieve you
from all embarrassment, so far as I am concerned, by
tendering you my resignation." ^^
Here was a new coil for the weary President to unravel.
Smith had to go, even though he had become " so inter-
twined," to use his own high-sounding words, " in the
fibers of the government" that his removal from office
was " an impossibility." ^* At the same time, Lincoln could
not afford to let the little Collector carry the big Secretary
of the Treasury out with him. So the President, order-
ing his carriage, drove to Chase's house. What followed
between the two men we will let Lincoln himself relate,
as he once did to an acquaintance : —
" I went directly up to him with the resignation in
my hand, and, putting my arm around his neck, said to
him, ' Chase, here is a paper with which I wish to have
nothing to do ; take it back and be reasonable.' I then
explained to him what had occurred while he was away.
I told him that the man whom I had appointed happened
200 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
to have been dead several weeks ; that I could n't replace
the person whom I had removed, — that was impossible,
— but that I would appoint any one else whom he should
select for the place .^^ It was difficult to bring him to
terms. I had to plead with him a long time, but I
finally succeeded, and heard nothing more of that resig-
nation." ^^
A few days thereafter, Mr. Chase found a satisfactory
candidate, whom Mr. Liucoln promptly appointed.
Meanwhile, a customs collectorship of more moment
— in fact, the most important on the list — was hatching
trouble between the President and his Secretary of the
Treasury. They found in Hiram Barney, Collector of the
Port of New York, a veritable germ of irritation. He was
one of Chase's most valued supporters. As a political
lieutenant, Barney had, in years gone by, won the Radical
leader's good-will ; as a friend, he had by his private kind-
nesses laid that gentleman, more recently, under heavy and
somewhat peculiar obligations. Mr. Chase was therefore
highly gratified when, in the spring of 1861, the President,
who knew and liked Mr. Barney, appointed him, largely if
not entirely of his own accord, to the management of the
New York Custom House. This post, beset with difficul-
ties under the best of conditions, was soon rendered par-
ticularly trying by conflicts between the opposing Repub-
lican factions. Conservatives accused Barney of running
the Custom House in the interests of the anti-slavery
men ; while Radicals found fault with him for not using
his patronage more freely than he did to strengthen the
Chase element. Between these two fires the Collector's
health became impaired. In the autumn of 1863, he asked
to be relieved from a thankless position ; but neither Lin-
coln nor Chase would hear of his retirement. As the time,
however, for the next presidential canvass drew near, the
attacks upon him grew fiercer than ever. They presently
developed into charges of corruption and incompetency,
which a Congressional Committee undertook to investi-
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 201
gate." Meanwhile Mr. Lincoln had come to the conclu-
sion that both Mr. Barney and the public service might
benefit if the resignation, rejected a few months before,
were revived and accepted. He said so to Mr. Chase, and
called upon him for his cooperation ; but the Secretary-
answered with the warmth that had become habitual on
such occasions : —
"I am to-day fifty-six years old. I have never con-
sciously and deliberately injured one fellow man. It is
too late for me to begin by sacrificing to clamor the reputa-
tion of a man whom I have known for more than twenty
years, and whose repute for honesty has been all that time
unsullied. I shall not recommend the removal of Mr.
Barney, except upon such show of misconduct, or incapa-
city, as makes it my duty to do so. In such a case I shall
not shrink from my duty. I pretend no indifference to
the consequences, personal to myself, which you refer to
as likely to follow this avowal on my part. But the ap-
proval of my own conscience is dearer to me than politi-
cal position, and I shall cheerfully sacrifice the latter to
preserve the former." ^
Four weeks later, Lincoln, disturbed by the misbehavior
of an officer high in the Collector's favor, again suggested
the wisdom of Barney's retirement from the Custom
House. Assuring both the Secretary and the Collector
of his continued confidence in the latter, he offered Mr.
Barney the mission to Portugal.^^ But the Collector de-
clined to withdraw voluntarily, while under fire ; and his
friend at the head of the department sustained him in this
position. Chase " was very angry," said the President,
describing the interview which followed, " and he told me
that the day that Mr, Barney left the New York Custom
House, with or without his own consent, he. Chase, would
withdraw from the Secretaryship of the Treasury. Well,
I backed down again." ^ There the matter rested, pend-
ing the investigation. Before the committee had concluded
its labors, however, Mr. Lincoln returned to the charge.
201 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Nothing, indeed, had been disclosed to Mr. Barney's per-
sonal dishonor ; yet the irregular and, in some instances,
corrupt practices traced to some of his subordinates, to-
gether with a steadily growing dissatisfaction over his
management, confirmed the President's purpose to make
a change in the office. Mr. Chase again protested, but
less vehemently than before ; and while the question was
still, in a sense, unsettled, came the succession of events
that put an end to the jangling relations between Lincoln
and his refractory minister.
Mr. Chase's persistent hostility toward the chief who
was entitled to his support should, before we go further, be
traced back to its one overmastering impulse — his own
ambition to become President. Had all the other causes
of irritation been removed, this aim would still have left
him in an attitude of uncompromising antagonism. In
fact, it alone accounts for whatever in the man's conduct
might otherwise be inexplicable.
" Such men as he be never at heart's ease,
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves."
An aspirant for the nomination in 1856, and again in
1860, Chase had entered Mr. Lincoln's cabinet with the
fixed idea that he, not the President, ought to be the stand-
ard-bearer of their party in 1864. It is said that a man
once bitten with desire for our highest office is never —
if it remain ungratified — wholly healed. This craving,
when thwarted, appears to gnaw like the worm which
dieth not, and to burn like the fire which is not quenched.
Chase's attack of " the White House fever," as Lincoln
in speaking of him called it, raged until 1872 — within a
year or so of his death ; but at no time was it so acute
as during these cabinet days. His course in seeking to
supplant Mr. Lincoln while a member of the President's
official household has been severely commented on, and
not without reason. Granting his fitness for the place to
which he aspired, as well as the validity of his claim to
the highest rewards within the gift of his party, and dis-
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 203
regarding all questions concerning his personal disloyalty,
we cannot overlook the impropriety which arose the mo-
ment he gave free range to an ambition, so dependent for
its success on the reverses of the very administration that
he was in duty bound to sustain with all his strength.
" A man may be either a Minister or an agitator," said
Lord Palmerston concerning a restlessly ambitious mem-
ber of his cabinet ; and even Chase's genius, as has been
seen, failed to carry him with credit through the anom-
alous situations that resulted from his attempt to be both,
at the same time. Nor could his ordinarily well-poised
sense of justice deter him from the unfair criticism and
factious opposition into which he allowed himself to be
betrayed by his rivalry of the President.®^
Mr. Chase began his canvass for the nomination betimes.
He scattered the seeds of his discontent with Mr. Lincoln
broadcast. Indeed, the letters that have supplied us with
instances of the Secretary's hostility constituted but a
small part of the correspondence by which he sought at
once to blight the President's prospects, and to bring his
own to fruition. He made it a point to cultivate cordial
relations with generals and politicians who had, for one
reason or another, become unfriendly to Mr. Lincoln ;
and, what is more reprehensible still, he did not hesitate
to fan the flames of their resentment. That such conduct
was "incompatible" — to use one of Chase's own phrases
— " with perfect honor and good faith," appears never to
have entered his mind. Nor did he see the inconsistencies
into which he was carried by his almost childish eager-
ness. Declaring his affection for the President, he exerted
himself, as far as his dignity permitted, to compass that
leader's political overthrow ; and affirming his indifference
to the highest office, he pushed his chances for it through
every avenue not barred by his own peculiar code of
public ethics. He even availed himself of the prevalent
prejudice against reelecting a President ; for, since Jack-
son occupied the White House, no man had been chosen
204 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
to a second term. As early as the autumn of 1863, Chase
wrote to his son-in-law, ex- Governor Sprague : —
" If I were controlled by merely personal sentiments, I
should prefer the reelection of Mr. Lincoln to that of any
other man. But I doubt the expediency of reelecting any-
body, and I think a man of different qualities from those
the President has will be needed for the next four years." ^^
The writer — it is perhaps unnecessary to add — be-
lieved himself endowed with all the gifts in which he
fancied the Executive to be lacking.
Despite his Secretary's unfavorable opinion, Lincoln
ardently desired a reelection. Aside from his own ambi-
tion, which alone was keen enough to stimulate him in
that direction, it was clearly his duty to do what with pro-
priety he might toward remaining at the head of affairs.
How long the life-and-death struggle for the Union
would last, or with what result, no man could, in 1863,
foresee. Under the most favorable conditions, part, if not
all, of another term might be required for bringing the
war to a triumphant close, and restoring the country to
its former prosperity. The hope of seeing his efforts thus
crowned had sustained the President's steps in the thorny
path over which he was even then leading the nation. To
be deprived of his command halfway, with the goal per-
haps in sight, would have been a disappointment, indeed.
He deemed himself, moreover, better fitted than any other
man — Mr. Chase to the contrary, notwithstanding — for
the completion of what he had begun. Discussing the mat-
ter with a friend, he said, in one of his favorite figures :
" I am only the people's attorney in this great affair. I
am trying to do the best I can for my client — the coun-
try. But if the people desire to change their attorney, it
is not for me to resist or complain. Nevertheless, between
you and me, I think the change would be impolitic, who-
ever might be substituted for the present counsel." ^^
On another occasion, he expressed this opinion in the
oft-quoted apothegm : —
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 205
" I don't believe it is wise to swap horses while crossing
a stream." ^*
Lincoln's confidence in the wisdom of his reelection
was at first not generally shared by leading members of
his own party. Some, like Chase, thought him unfit for
the office. In this "fellow of infinite jest," with his easy-
going moods, his seeming lack of executive talents, and
his apparent incapacity to grasp the momentous problems
of the war, they failed to discern
"The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man"
that the whole world, wise after the event, now knows him
to have been. Others, playing politics with the very life
of the nation at stake, insisted on forcing out of the game
a President who, after a masterful fashion of his own,
had brushed their hands aside in filling this office or
adopting that policy. Here, surely, was not an encourag-
ing outlook for a renomination. "Of the more earnest
and thoroughgoing Republicans in both Houses of Con-
gress," writes a member, " probably not one in ten really
favored it." ^ The spirit of faction, too, was bitter, even
for those overwrought days. What might be called the
Radical Anti-Slavery wing of the party — at least, certain
politicians and editors who believed themselves to repre-
sent that wing — cried aloud against the renomination.
Lincoln's cautious, conservative methods, particularly his
course in subordinating the slavery question to whatever
concerned the preservation of the Union, had aroused
their vigorous opposition. They demanded a candidate
who would push the war more vigorously, perhaps more
sternly, in this, as well as other directions ; and they
declared Mr. Chase to be that man. Our Secretary met
them coyly halfway. Hoping to combine in his favor
all these elements of opposition to the President, he
permitted a committee of Senators, Congressmen, and
prominent citizens to enter upon a formal canvass for
his nomination.
2o6 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
The movement in behalf of Chase was headed by Sena-
tor Samuel C. Pomeroy of Kansas, who presently issued
the secret circular that is known in history by his name.^"
This document — though Chase had no hand in it — was
entirely in his vein. It declared that the reelection of
Lincoln was "practically impossible" ; that "the cause of
human liberty and the dignity of the nation" suffered
from his "tendency toward compromises and temporary
expedients"; that "the application of the one-term prin-
ciple" was essential to the safety of our institutions ; that
in the Hon. Salmon P. Chase were to be found "more
of the qualities needed in a President, during the next
four years," than were "combined in any other available
candidate " ; and that all those " in favor of the speedy re-
storation of the Union, on the basis of universal freedom,"
should at once form local organizations to promote his
nomination. Many copies of the circular were sent out
by mail. They were marked " Confidential," it is true, but
before long they found their way into the newspapers,
much to Mr. Chase's embarrassment. He thereupon, at
once, wrote to the President, disavowing any knowledge
of the circular, before its appearance in the public prints,
but admitting his connection, as a candidate, with the
Pomeroy Committee. "If there is anything," he added,
" in my action or position which, in your judgment, will
prejudice the public interest under my charge, I beg you
to say so. I do not wish to administer the Treasury
Department one day without your entire confidence. For
yourself I cherish sincere respect and esteem ; and, permit
me to add, affection. Differences of opinion as to admin-
istrative action have not changed these sentiments; nor
have they been changed by assaults upon me by persons
who profess themselves the special representatives of your
views and policy. You are not responsible for acts not
your own; nor will you hold me responsible except for
what I do or say myself." "
Mr. Lincoln, with characteristic deliberation, delayed
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 207
his answer a week. Then he wrote — and the letter is
worth quoting almost entire : —
" I was not shocked or surprised by the appearance of
the letter, because I had had knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's
committee, and of secret issues which, I supposed, came
from it, and of secret agents who, I supposed, were sent
out by it, for several weeks. I have known just as little
of these things as my friends have allowed me to know.
They bring the documents to me, but I do not read them ;
they tell me what they think fit to tell me, but I do not
inquire for more. I fully concur with you that neither of
us can be justly held responsible for what our respective
friends may do without our instigation or countenance ;
and I assure you, as you have assured me, that no assault
has been made upon you by my instigation, or with my
countenance. Whether you shall remain at the head of
the Treasury Department is a question which I will not
allow myself to consider from any standpoint other than
my judgment of the public service, and, in that view, I
do not perceive occasion for a change." ^
This seeming indifPerence of the President to his Sec-
retary's rivalry, as well as Mr. Lincoln's failure to respond
to that gentleman's professions of affection, greatly mor-
tified Mr. Chase. He had, to be sure, been retained in
the cabinet under conditions that would ordinarily have
warranted his dismissal ; but the relations between him
and his superior were, from that time, less cordial even
than ever.
Lincoln's attitude toward Chase's electioneering pro-
jects reveals the President at his full stature. It affords
a view of the master, patient in his strength, under
circumstances that would have tried the nerves of an
Iron Chancellor. When his friends, advising at the very
outset against a cabinet made up of convention rivals,
predicted that some of the aspirants would continue
antagonistic to him, he is reported to have replied : —
" No, gentlemen, the times are too grave and perilous
2o8 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
for ambitious schemes, and personal rivalries. I need the
aid of all of these men. They enjoy the confidence of
their several States and sections ; and they will strengthen
the administration." ®®
To the Secretaries themselves he said : —
*' It will require the utmost skill, influence, and sagacity
of all of us to save the republic. Let us forget ourselves,
and join hands like brothers to save the republic. If we
succeed, there will be glory enough for all." ^^
How deaf one of them was to this appeal the President
had soon to discover. Yet he allowed neither his disap-
pointment nor the resulting perplexities to modify his
high opinion of Chase's value in the Treasury Depart-
ment. Although Mr. Lincoln, as the minister complained,
may never have expressed to him sufficient appreciation
of his services, the President certainly did so, without
reserve, to others. " Of all the great men I have ever
known," said he, after weighing the Secretary's short-
comings, " Chase is equal to about one and a half of the
best of them." ^^ When Lincoln's supporters, moreover,
called his attention to the practices by which the man in
the Treasury was advancing his political fortunes, at the
expense of the administration,''^ he told them : —
" I have determined to shut my eyes, so far as possible,
to everything of the sort. Mr. Chase makes a good Sec-
retary, and I shall keep him where he is. If he becomes
President, all right. I hope we may never have a worse
man."
Then, turning to the less pleasing aspect of the affair,
he continued : —
" I have observed with regret his plan of strengthening
himself. Whenever he sees that an important matter is
troubling me, if I am compelled to decide in a way to
give offence to a man of some influence, he always ranges
himself in opposition to me and persuades the victim that
he has been hardly dealt with, and that he would have
arranged it very differently. It was so with General Frd-
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 209
mont, with General Hunter when I annulled his hasty
proclamation, with General Butler when he was recalled
from New Orleans, with these Missouri people when they
called the other day. I am entirely indifferent as to his
success or failure in these schemes, so long as he does his
duty at the head of the Treasury Department." ^^
These citations, furthermore, would be incomplete
without one of those homely stories whereby the President
was wont to point his remarks. He narrated it to Henry
J. Raymond, when the famous editor called his attention
to the danger that might arise from Chase's candidacy.
" Raymond," said he, " you were brought up on a farm,
were you not ? Then you know what a ' chin fly ' is. My
brother and I were once plowing corn on a Kentucky
farm, I driving the horse, and he holding the plow. The
horse was lazy ; but on one occasion rushed across the
field so that I, with my long legs, could scarcely keep
pace with him. On reaching the end of the furrow, I
found an enormous ' chin fly ' fastened upon him, and
I knocked him off. My brother asked me what I did that
for. I told him I did n't want the old horse bitten in
that way. ' Why,' said my brother, ' that 's all that made
him go ! ' Now, if Mr. Chase has a presidential ' chin
fly ' biting him, I 'm not going to knock him off, if it will
only make his department go^ ^*
Only a true leader of men could so regard the competi-
tion of a powerful subordinate.
It should not be supposed, however, as some eulogists of
the President would have us think, that he was too big to
regard Chase's pretensions with any uneasiness. Lincoln
never underrated an opponent. He owed his victories as
much to his careful measurement of the men with whom
he had to deal as to any other single thing. The disaffec-
tion of many influential Republicans, during 1863, was
painfully apparent to him. He realized how strong might
be Chase's chances for the nomination, if the Secretary
could combine upon himself the support of these leaders
2IO LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
and of their constituencies. Somewhat of this apprehen-
sion was revealed in the President's discussion of the
situation with Colonel A. K. McClure, the Pennsylvania
journalist and politician, at the White House, one even-
ing, while the Chase canvass was at its height. The
Colonel belittled the movement, but failed to imbue Mr.
Lincoln with his confidence in the President's renomi-
nation. Their talk lasted well into the night. As the
visitor, after several futile attempts to take his leave,
reached the door, Lincoln called him back and asked,
with a twinkle of the eye : —
" By the way, McClure, how would it do if I were to
decline Chase?"
The Colonel, surprised at the novel suggestion, inquired
as to how that could be done.
" Well, I don't know exactly how it might be done,"
answered Mr. Lincoln, " but that reminds me of a story
of two Democratic candidates for Senator in ' Egypt,' Illi-
nois, in its early political times. That section of Illinois
was almost solidly Democratic, as you know, and nobody
but Democrats were candidates for office. Two Democratic
candidates for Senator met each other in joint debate, from
day to day, and gradually became more and more exas-
perated at each other ; until their discussions were simply
disgraceful wrangles, and they both became ashamed of
them. They finally agreed that either should say anything
he pleased about the other, and it should not be resented
as an offence ; and from that time on, the campaign pro-
gressed without any special display of ill-temper. On elec-
tion night the two candidates, who lived in the same town,
were receiving their returns together ; and the contest was
uncomfortably close. A distant precinct in which one of
the candidates confidently expected a large majority was
finally reported with a majority against him. The disap-
pointed candidate expressed great surprise, to which the
other candidate answered that he should not be surprised,
as he had taken the liberty of declining him in that dis-
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 211
trict, the evening before the election. He reminded the
defeated candidate that he had agreed that either was free
to say anything about the other, without offence ; and
added that, under that authority, he had gone up into that
district and taken the liberty of saying that his opponent
had retired from the contest ; and therefore the vote of
the district was changed, and the declined candidate was
thus defeated. I think," concluded Lincoln, with one of
his hearty laughs, " I had better decline Chase." ^^
It was evident to Colonel McClure that the President
then seriously considered the question of inducing Chase
to decline, and that what he said in jest he meant in sober
earnest.
For some months Lincoln was uncertain how the defeat
of Chase might be accomplished. When the way was not
clear before him, he could sit still with better grace
than any man that had occupied the presidential chair.
Throughout 1863, therefore, he made no public sign. To
the surprise of all observers, his ambitious Secretary was
suffered to push the work of opposition against him
without let or hindrance. By the time Chase formally
announced himself to be a candidate, however, in Janu-
ary, 1864, Lincoln began to bring his forces into action.
" He did this," says the old campaigner last quoted,
" with a degree of sagacity and method that would have
done credit to the ripest politician of the age." The
President's friends in New Hampshire, Chase's native
State, led off at their local convention by voting " Abra-
ham Lincoln to be the people's choice for reelection."
Some weeks thereafter, a Republican caucus of the legis-
lature in Ohio, Chase's State by adoption, followed with
a similar resolution ; and Rhode Island, where Senator
Sprague, Chase's son-in-law, held sway, lost no time in
arraying itself on the side of the President. From all
quarters, indeed, as the winter advanced, came the call
for his reuomination. In local committees, Union League
clubs, State legislatures, and State conventions, — wher-
212 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
ever Republican politicians in close touch with the voters
came together, Lincoln was proclaimed to be the party's
choice.^® How much of this was due to a skilful manipu-
lation of his supporters, how much to the spontaneous
esteem of the people, and how much to a reaction against
Pomeroy's ill-advised circular, we may never know. Suf-
fice it to say that the season was hardly over before our
Secretary found himself swept by the current of Lincoln's
popularity into a formal withdrawal from the contest.
The sincerity of Chase's request ^^ " that no further
consideration be given " to his name was open to question.
One of the Secretary's supporters describes the letter
of withdrawal as a " word of declination diplomatically
spoken in order to rouse their flagging spirits." ^* And
there are indications that some of Chase's adherents, as
well as he, himself, still indulged hopes, all his disclaimers
to the contrary notwithstanding, of somehow diverting
the nomination from Lincoln. Indeed, his comments on
the President during the spring of 1864 were especially
censorious. It is not surprising, therefore, all things
considered, that some of Mr. Lincoln's friends who had
become inimical to the Secretary of the Treasury should
have regarded him at the time with increased bitterness.
Of this hostility the Blairs furnished a notable instance.
They had, from almost the beginning of the administra-
tion, been at feud with Chase. He was a Radical, they
were Conservatives ; he made no secret of how lightly
he regarded the President, they held Mr. Lincoln in high
esteem ; he strove to discredit and supplant his chief, they
were as zealous, though not a whit more tactful, in that
chief's support. Montgomery Blair in the cabinet, and
General Francis P. Blair, Jr., on the stump or in Con-
gress, lost no opportunity for assailing their common
enemy. Like their father, Francis Preston Blair, Sr.,
" Old Hickory's " friend and kitchen counselor, they be-
longed to the Jacksonian school of politicians — aggres-
sive, intense, uncompromising. " The Blairs," said Mont-
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 213
gomery, " when they go in for a fight go in for a funeral."
They undertook, in Chase's case at least, to make the
boast good. Young Frank's attacks upon the Secretary
from the floor of the House culminated, on April 23, in
a speech which assailed him with extraordinary violence.
"Nobody is simple enough," said General Blair, "to
believe that the distinguished Secretary has really retired
from the canvass for the nomination to the presidency,
although he has written a letter declining to be a candi-
date. That letter was written because the 'strictly pri-
vate' circular of the Pomeroy Committee unearthed his
underground and underhand intrigue against the Presi-
dent. It was such a disgraceful and disgusting sight to
make use of the patronage and power given him by the
President, against his chief, that even Chase got ashamed
to occupy such a position publicly. For that reason his
letter was written. He wanted to get down under the
ground and work there in the dark as he is now doing."
The speaker accused Mr. Chase of disunion sentiments,
reiterated charges that the Secretary of the Treasury was
" sacrificing a vast public interest to advance his ambi-
tion," and asserted that corruption pervaded the banking
as well as the southern trade operations of the finance
department.™
This speech, whatever may have been its provocation,
was in certain particulars nothing short of scurrilous.
Upon hearing of it. Chase gave way to what one of his
friends termed "Achillean wrath." His fury was due
mainly to the fact that directly after it was delivered,
seemingly on the very day, indeed, the President had
revived Blair's commission as Major-General, and had sent
him to the front in command of an army corps. This left
no doubt in the Secretary's mind that the assault had
been made with Mr. Lincoln's approval. So the inevitable
resignation was again to the fore, but wise friends coun-
seled delay. Two of them waited upon the President.
He expressed his disapproval of the speech in no uncer-
214 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
tain language, and emphasized the injustice of holding
the Secretary of the Treasury particularly responsible for
the trade regulations which had been adopted in cabinet
council. As to Blair's commission, he explained that the
General had resigned from the army on taking his seat
in Congress, with the understanding that the resignation
might be withdrawn at his own pleasure, if he should
desire to reenter the service. A command had accordingly
been secured for Blair, at his request, several weeks
before, and it was merely the necessary formality of his
reinstatement that had taken place on the day of the
unfortunate attack. "Within three hours," added Mr.
Lincoln, " I heard that this speech had been made, when
I knew that another beehive was kicked over. My first
thought was to have canceled the orders, restoring him to
the army and assigning him to command. Perhaps this
would have been. best. On such reflection as I was able
to give to the matter, however, I concluded to let them
stand. If I was wrong in this, the injury to the service
can be set right."*" With this explanation Mr. Chase
was fain to be content, or at least to seem so; but the
barbs of the Blairs still rankled in his heart. That these
inveterate enemies, moreover, enjoyed, without apparent
diminution, the protection, even the affection, of the Presi-
dent, hardly served to improve the Secretary's temper.
He looked upon Mr. Lincoln as an accomplice of his
traducers, after the fact, and only the unanimous advice
of his friends kept him at his post.*^
Meanwhile, popular sentiment in favor of the Presi*
dent's renomination became more and more pronounced.
The loyal people of the country understood him better
than did the Washington politicians or the single-minded
Radical leaders. From all walks of life came demands
that he should have another term. Laborers, farmers,
mechanics, merchants, and scholars, alike echoed Profes-
sor Gray's dictum, " Homely, honest, ungainly Lincoln is
the representative man of the country." *^ As delegation
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 215
after delegation was instructed in his favor, the Presi-
dent's renomination appeared to be a foregone conclu-
sion; but the opposition did not entirely abandon the
field, so Lincoln kept his eye warily on it. Within two
weeks of the date set for the convention, when one of his
supporters sought to relieve his anxiety by pointing out
that a majority of the delegates were committed to him,
he replied : —
" Well, McClure, what you say seems to be unanswer-
able, but I don't quite forget that I was nominated for
President in a convention that was two thirds for the other
fellow." »3
These misgivings were, of course, groundless. The
Union-Republican National Convention of June 7, 1864,
proved to be not at all " for the other fellow." In fact,
strenuous efforts to win over a few delegates for Mr. Chase
from the almost solid Lincoln column failed. General
Grant, it is true, on the roll-call received the 22 votes of
the Missouri Radicals, — cast under peremptory instruc-
tions, — but even these were quickly transferred to Mr.
Lincoln, in order that he might have the honor of a unan-
imous nomination, on the first ballot.
The President's brilliant victory in the Baltimore Con-
vention hardly improved the already sharp-set temper
of his finance minister. Chase would not, indeed could
not acknowledge a master. He was as ready as ever to
try conclusions with Lincoln ; and the occasion, his final
one, — for we have now reached the last of these remark-
able encounters, — soon presented itself. Early in June,
John J. Cisco, Assistant Treasurer of the United States
at New York, proffered his resignation, to take effect at
the close of the month. This office was surpassed in im-
portance, financially speaking, by that of the Secretary
of the Treasury, alone. To appoint a satisfactory suc-
cessor accordingly became a matter of weighty consid-
eration ; especially because politics, as well as finance,
had to be taken into account. So we find Mr. Chase, at
21 6 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
the President's request, consulting on the subject with
the New York members of the Upper House, particularly
with Senator Edwin D. Morgan, who was regarded as
representing, in a way, the commercial interests of the
metropolis. The Senator and the Secretary agreed suc-
cessively upon three prominent bankers, who each, in
turn, declined the office. Thereupon, Mr. Chase decided
to name Maunsell B. Field, an Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury, who had previously been Mr. Cisco's deputy.
This met with Senator Morgan's spirited opposition. He
urged that Mr. Field was not competent for the place,
and that his appointment would be hurtful to the inter-
ests of their party in New York. He presented, at the
same time, the names of three highly esteemed citizens,
any one of whom the Secretary was assured would be
acceptable. But Mr. Chase could not be moved from
his selection. As Field was one of his favorites, all per-
sonal objections nettled the Secretary ; and as the office
was one involving confidential relations with the head of
the department, these efforts to apply outside political
requirements were peculiarly offensive to him. Having
made sure that Field's nomination would be confirmed by
the Senate, Mr. Chase, without further ado, laid it, on
June 27, before the President. Mr. Lincoln answered on
the following day : —
" I cannot, without much embarrassment, make this
appointment, principally because of Senator Morgan's
very firm opposition to it."
The writer referred to the men whose names had been
last submitted by the Senator, and closed with : —
" It will really oblige me if you will make choice among
these three, or any other man that Senators Morgan and
Harris will be satisfied with, and send me a nomination
for him." «*
The Secretary of the Treasury, however, was more de-
termined than ever to resist what, as in former instances,
he deemed to be an encroachment upon his prerogatives.
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 217
He replied by note, asking for a personal interview. Re-
ceiving no answer, he despatched to Mr. Cisco, the same
day, an earnest request that the Assistant Treasurer retain
his place, for " at least one quarter longer" ; and sent to
the President another letter, setting forth his reasons for
selecting Mr. Field. To this Lincoln rejoined : —
" When I received your note this forenoon, suggesting
a verbal conversation in relation to the appointment of a
successor to Mr. Cisco, I hesitated, because the difficulty
does not, in the main part, lie within the range of a conver-
sation between you and me. As the proverb goes, no man
knows so well where the shoe pinches as he who wears it.
I do not think Mr. Field a very proper man for the place,
but I would trust your judgment and forego this were the
greater difficulty out of the way. Much as I personally
like Mr. Barney, it has been a great burden to me to re-
tain him in his place, when nearly all our friends in New
York were directly or indirectly urging his removal. Then
the appointment of Judge Hogeboom to be general ap-
praiser brought me to, and has ever since kept me at, the
verge of open revolt. Now the appointment of Mr. Field
would precipitate me in it unless Senator Morgan and
those feeling as he does, could be brought to concur in it.
Strained as I already am at this point, I do not think I
can make this appointment in the direction of still greater
strain. The testimonials of Mr. Field, with your accom-
panying notes, were duly received, and I am now waiting
to see your answer from Mr. Cisco." ^
This answer came within a few hours. It averted — or
seemed to avert — the impending crisis. For the Assistant
Treasurer, as requested, withdrew his resignation.
Here the incident should have closed, but Mr. Chase
felt that the President had not treated him with the con-
sideration which was his due. A cabinet minister who had
rendered such signal service as he, and whose value was
emphasized by hosts of admirers, ought, once for all, to
have complete control over his own department. It shall
21 8 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
be that, thought he, or nothing. Mr. Lincoln, he told him-
self, could not get along without him, — certainly not in
June, 1864, when the financial outlook was blacker than it
had been at any time since Sumter fell. Gold was rising
by leaps and bounds, with the national credit, for a brief
period, badly shaken ; a deficit of eighty millions, despite
heavy taxation, foreshadowed the placing of still heavier
burdens upon the people ; and the Treasury was called
upon to satisfy a regularly recurring demand for the
almost fabulous sum of one hundred million dollars a
month. Now was the time to discipline the President
to some purpose ; for all those previous resignations —
however Chase may, in each instance, have been concil-
iated — had evidently failed to advance the Secretary's
authority one step. Accordingly, his next letter to Mr.
Lincoln read, in part : —
"The withdrawal of Mr. Cisco's resignation, which I
inclose, relieves the present difficulty ; but I cannot help
feeling that my position here is not altogether agreeable
to you ; and it is certainly too full of embarrassment, and
difficulty, and painful responsibility, to allow in me the
least desire to retain it. I think it my duty, therefore, to
inclose to you my resignation." ^^
This message greatly troubled the President. It is said
to have disturbed him more than any matter that concerned
him personally in the course of his whole administration ;
but he saw that to treat this resignation, under the circum-
stances, like its predecessors, would involve a virtual abdi-
cation of his proper functions in favor of his refractory
minister. Secretary Chase had jogged the elbow of Fate
once too often. In the expressive language of a foreign
idiom, he had become impossible. On the following day,
therefore, Mr. Lincoln wrote to him : —
"Your resignation of the office of Secretary of the
Treasury, sent me yesterday, is accepted. Of all I have
said in commendation of your ability and fidelity I have
nothing to unsay ; and yet you and I have reached a point
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 219
of mutual embarrassment in our official relations, which
it seems cannot be overcome or longer sustained, con-
sistently with the public service." ®^
So the overstrained bond between these two remarkable
men was snapped at last.
That Chase should cease to manage the Treasury was
regarded on all sides as a public calamity. " Mr. Presi-
dent, this is worse than another Bull Run defeat ! " ex-
claimed the Register of the department, when he learned
of Mr. Lincoln's purpose. " Pray, let me go to Secre-
tary Chase and see if I cannot induce him to withdraw his
resignation. Its acceptance now might cause a financial
panic."
" I will tell you how it is with Chase," was the reply.
*' It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to fall into
a bad habit. Chase has fallen into two bad habits. One
is that to which I have often referred. He thinks he has
become indispensable to the country ; that his intimate
friends know it, and he cannot comprehend why the coun-
try does not understand it. He also thinks he ought to be
President ; he has no doubt whatever about that. It is in-
conceivable to him why people have not found it out ; why
they don't, as one man, rise up and say so. He is, as you
say, an able financier ; as you think, without saying so, he
is a great statesman, and at the bottom, a patriot. Ordi-
narily he discharges a public trust, the duties of a public
office, with great ability — with greater ability than any
man I know. Mind, I say ordinarily, for these bad habits
seem to have spoilt him. They have made him irritable,
uncomfortable, so that he is never perfectly happy unless
he is thoroughly miserable, and able to make everybody
else just as uncomfortable as he is himself. He knows that
the nomination of Field would displease the Unionists of
New York, would delight our enemies, and injure our
friends. He knows that I could not make it without seri-
ously offending the strongest supporters of the government
in New York, and that the nomination would not strengthen
110 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
him anywhere or with anybody. Yet he resigns because I
will not make it. He is either determined to annoy me,
or that I shall pat him on the shoulder and coax him to
stay. I don't think I ought to do it. I will not do it. I
will take him at his word." *^
The tidings that Secretary Chase had resigned once
too often brought a cloud of eminent protestants to the
White House. Most urgent among these were the mem-
bers of the Senate Committee on Finance, who came in
a body. They too believed, for the most part, that the
withdrawal of Chase from the Treasury Department, at
that time, would be a misfortune. Some of them, more-
over, let it be seen that they did not hold the President
free from blame for the rupture. Lincoln received the
Senators cordially. A frank discussion ensued.^^ He re-
counted, incident for incident, the story of his painful
relations with this minister, who seemed incapable of
understanding that the President, not his Secretaries,
must command ; and nothing urged by the Senators
could move him from his conclusion that Mr. Chase's
usefulness as a cabinet officer was at an end. "I will
not longer," said Lincoln, " continue the association. I
am ready and willing to resign the office of President,
and let you have Mr. Hamlin for your President ; but I
will no longer endure the state I have been in."^*' This
was sufficiently emphatic. The Committee withdrew, and
on the following day their Chairman, William Pitt Fes-
senden, became, amidst enthusiastic approval. Chase's
successor.
No one, it is safe to say, was more surprised at the
turn affairs had taken than the whilom Secretary of the
Treasury, himself. He had confidently expected the Pre-
sident to put this resignation through the course of its
numerous predecessors. That Mr. Lincoln took a differ-
ent tack was greatly to his disappointment. There is
even a tinge of bitterness in the regrets confided to his
diary. "I had found," writes Mr. Chase, commenting
AN INDISPENSABLE MAN 221
naively on the President's final letter, " a good deal of
embarrassment from him ; but what he had found from
me I could not imagine, unless it has been caused by my
unwillingness to have offices distributed as spoils or bene-
fits, with more regard to the claims of divisions, factions,
cliques, and individuals, than to fitness of selection.""
Yet the writer — as this same diary abundantly indicates
— would gladly have resumed those embarrassments.
When a friend told him how kindly the President had
spoken of him, a few days before the resignation. Chase
sadly replied that such expressions of good-will, had they
reached him in time, would have averted the trouble ; ^
and when the new Secretary repeated to his predecessor
what Mr. Lincoln had conceded concerning appointments,
Mr. Chase made lamentation after this fashion : —
" Had the President, in reply to my note tendering my
resignation, expressed himself as he did now to Mr. Fes-
senden, I should have cheerfully withdrawn it." ^^
Even after Chase had retired from the department,
his supporters did not despair of his return. The most
potent among them, Charles Sumner, once suggested to
the ex-Secretary that the President would perhaps recall
him, as Louis XVT had twice recalled Necker. To which
Chase replied : —
" That might be if Mr. Lincoln were King and not
politician." ^*
Before the year was out, however, that politician
evinced how immeasurably he towered above the states-
man who had so persistently antagonized him, by nom-
inating Mr. Chase to the Chief-Justiceship of the Su-
preme Court.^
Three months after the appointment, Lincoln entered
the eastern portico of the capitol for his second inau-
guration. If his thoughts, as he stepped upon the plat-
form, reverted to the incidents of that other ceremony
which had taken place on the same spot, just four years
before, he may have missed the defeated rival, who then
112 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
came forward to hold the President's hat while he took
the oath of office. Douglas, indeed, had closed his last
earthly canvass ; but another proud opponent of the vic-
torious Magistrate stood beside him, as if to take the
" Little Giant's " place. It was Salmon P. Chase. By-
virtue of his new office, he administered the oath and
held the book for Abraham Lincoln to kiss.
CHAPTER VI
THE CURBING OF STANTON
Edwin McMasters Stanton made the third member
of Mr. Lincoln's great cabinet triad. Unlike Seward and
Chase, he brought to the government neither the experi-
ence nor the prestige that commonly results from a long
period of public service. Engrossed in the practice of his
profession at the bar, he had managed in his maturer
years to eschew active politics,^ until his brilliant work
before the Supreme Court had secured to him, early in
1858, a retainer as special counsel for the United States
on what were called the California Land Cases. So ably
had these been conducted that President Buchanan, less
than two years thereafter, appointed him Attorney-Gen-
eral. In that capacity Mr. Stanton had straightway be-
come the most forceful of those advisers who saved from
disgrace the closing days of a crumbling administration.
The courage and skill with which he had opposed the
intrigues of the secessionists in the cabinet gained for
him — Democrat though he was — the confidence of lead-
ing Republicans. His ardent patriotism, indeed, seemed
to outrun party fealty. He had gone so far as to hold
secret conferences with Seward, Sumner, Wilson, Dawes,
Howard, Ashley, and others, who have borne testimony
to the value of his services, especially during the critical
period that directly preceded Mr. Lincoln's inauguration.
After that event, Mr. Stanton, having resumed his prac-
tice in Washington, became an anxious observer of the
new government.
Notwithstanding his timely cooperation, while Attorney-
General, with Republican Senators and Congressmen,
224 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Stanton looked askance at the man whom they had ele-
vated to the presidency. The two had met, several years
before, under conditions that left no favorable impression
in the recollection of either. As associate counsel with
George Harding, in the famous reaper case of McCormick
vs. Manny, they had appeared for the defendant, before
Judges McLean and Drummond, in the United States
Circuit Court, at Cincinnati. When the trial began, it
was found that the plaintiff had but two advocates, E. N.
Dickerson and Reverdy Johnson, the leader of the Mary-
land bar. They expressed their willingness to have the
three counsel of the other side heard, if Mr. Dickerson,
who was to make the argument on the mechanical phases
of their case, might speak twice and Mr. Johnson once.
This the attorney who had charge of the defence of course
declined. He preferred to withdraw a representative, —
but which one was it to be ? Mr. Harding, then at the
zenith of his fame as a patent lawyer, had been retained
especially to make the technical argument. Choice for
the forensic address, therefore, lay between Lincoln and
Stanton. The latter was selected, to Mr. Lincoln's keen
disappointment. He had looked forward to an active par-
ticipation in the trial, not only on account of the impor-
tant interests involved, but also because he was glad of
the chance to measure his strength against that of the
renowned Baltimore pleader. Lincoln's chagrin, more-
over, was greatly intensified by Stanton's behavior. It is
not true, as has been generally reported, that the man
from Springfield was elbowed out of the case by his east-
ern colleague ; but there can be no doubt that what at
best was a mortifying experience for Lincoln became
doubly so by reason of the other's rudeness. Our prairie
lawyer, though he ranked high at home, made a poor
impression upon Stanton, who described him, in his acrid
way, as a "long, lank creature from Illinois, wearing a
dirty linen duster for a coat, on the back of which the
perspiration had splotched wide stains that resembled a
vsdv>jv>u\r\^^
THE CURBING OF STANTON 225
map of the continent." What was worse, Mr. Stanton
made no secret of his disdain. The object of it overheard
him inquiring, —
" Where did that long-armed creature come from, and
what can he expect to do in this case ? "
So gross, indeed, were the discourtesies to which Lin-
coln was subjected from this quarter, that his magnani-
mous soul for some time harbored bitter feeling. " I have
never been so brutally treated as by that man Stanton,"
was his comment on the affair ; and low as was this gauge
of Stanton's breeding, it corresponded closely enough with
that worthy's estimate of Lincoln's ability.^
The relations between the two men underwent no im-
provement, even when the humiliated associate of a few
years before became President. What dislikes are so
deep-rooted as those for which no adequate reason can
be given ? And what public man of his day was so good
a hater as Edwin M. Stanton? His recent connection,
moreover, with Buchanan's somewhat discredited regime,
together with his vehement, impatient patriotism, hardly
served to temper his opinion of Mr. Lincoln, or of the
new administration's temporizing policy.^ In view, too, of
the faultfinding and distrust which then marked the con-
duct of those who stood nearest to the President, it is not
surprising that an outsider, so prejudiced as Mr. Stanton,
should indulge in adverse criticism. We are not pre-
pared, however, for the harsh expressions that he scattered
through his private letters, in the spring and summer of
1861.
"No one," wrote he to Major-General John A. Dix,
" can imagine the deplorable condition of this city, and
the hazard of the government, who did not witness the
weakness and panic of the administration, and the painful
imbecility of Lincoln." *
To ex-President Buchanan he writes : —
" A strong feeling of distrust in the candor and sin-
cerity of Lincoln personally and of his cabinet has sprung
226 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
up. If they had been merely silent and secret, there
might have been no ground of complaint. But assurances
are said to have been given and declarations made in
conflict with the facts now transpiring, in respect to the
South, so that no one speaks of Lincoln or any member
of his cabinet with respect or regard."
In other letters to Buchanan, Stanton charges the
administration with " peculation and fraud," the trend
of affairs is supposed to have excited " distrust in every
department of the government," " it is said that Lin-
coln takes the precaution of seeing no strangers alone,"
it is believed that " in less than thirty days Davis will be
in possession of Washington," there are " reports of the
trepidation of Lincoln " after the Baltimore riot, " it is
certain that the administration is panic-stricken for some
cause," and so on. During the week that was ushered in
by the defeat at Bull Run, Mr. Stanton wrote ; —
" The imbecility of this administration culminated in
that catastrophe ; and irretrievable misfortune and na-
tional disgrace, never to be forgotten, are to be added to
the ruin of all peaceful pursuits and national bankruptcy,
as the result of Lincoln's ' running the machine,' for five
months. ... It is not unlikely that some change in the
War and Navy Departments may take place, but none
beyond those two departments until Jeff Davis turns
out the whole concern."
This correspondence was not given to the public until
some years after the war.^ Even then, several of the letters
to Mr. Buchanan were charitably suppressed by his bio-
grapher, because they were so violent in their denuncia-
tions. Mr. Stanton, however, at the time, made no secret
of this hostility. His irritation, when quickened by dis-
cussion, found vent among friends, in coarse epithets.
According to at least two chroniclers, he spoke of the
President as "a low, cunning clown." ^ According to
another, he habitually referred to Mr. Lincoln as the
" original gorilla," and " often said that Du Chaillu was a
THE CURBING OF STANTON 227
fool to wander all the way to Africa, in search of what he
could so easily have found at Springfield, Illinois." ^ Mr.
Stanton went so far, it is reported, as to join the advocates
of a revolutionary scheme, by means of which a military
dictator was to displace the President. In short, from the
day of their first meeting in Cincinnati, until deep into
the first year of the war, he looked upon Mr. Lincoln
with contempt.
What change, if any, Mr. Stanton's attitude had un-
dergone by January, 1862, is not known. Howbeit, on
the 13th of that month, the President, brushing personal
feelings aside, nominated him to succeed Simon Cameron
as Secretary of War. Though Stanton had been a supporter
of Breckinridge, the southern Democratic candidate in
the canvass of 1860,^ he had, thereafter, as we have seen,
given signal evidence of his fidelity to Union principles.
The time, moreover, had come for breaking down the par-
tisan barriers which divided northern patriots, so that the
government might call to its aid friends of the Constitu-
tion in whatever party they might be found. This, of
course, rendered Mr. Stanton's aggressive Democracy an
advantage, in Mr. Lincoln's eyes. It was, in fact, one of
the considerations which determined his selection. The
appointment, which had been urged by Secretaries Seward
and Chase, as well as by the retiring incumbent, had the
approval, too, of Radical members in both Houses of Con-
gress. It was promptly accepted and as promptly confirmed.
The elevation of Mr. Stanton to an important place in
the Lincoln cabinet was a surprise to the nation. And his
consent to associate himself with that administration
aroused the still greater wonder of his own friends. One
of them, who knew from frequent outbursts of scorn how
the appointee regarded the President, referred to this feel-
ing when he asked the new Secretary : —
"What will you do?"
Mr. Stanton, ignoring the purport of the question, an-
swered, among other things : —
228 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
" I will make Abe Lincoln President of the United
States." »
To another old friend he wrote, in confidence : —
" I hold my present post at the request of a President
who knew me personally, but to whom I had not spoken
from the 4th of March, 1861, until the day he handed me
my commission. I knew that everything I cherish and
hold dear would be sacrificed by accepting office. But I
thought I might help to save the country, and for that
I was willing to perish." ^"
To Mr. Buchanan he wrote : —
"My accession to my present position was quite as
sudden and unexpected as the confidence you bestowed
upon me in calling me to your cabinet, and the responsi-
ble trust was accepted in both instances from the same
motives, and will be executed with the same fidelity to the
Constitution and laws." "
The letters state what the conversation implies. To-
gether they indicate the spirit in which Mr. Stanton
entered upon his office. He clearly believed himself sum-
moned, a second time, to strengthen the hands of an
impotent President.
However grossly Edwin M. Stanton may have mis-
judged Mr. Lincoln, his confidence in himself was well
founded. A glance at the new war minister's burly, thick-
set body revealed something of the force coiled within.
His leonine head, with its mass of black, curling hair and
long, slightly grizzled beard, gave promise of strength,
which the keen, bespectacled eyes, no less than the full,
resolute lips, appeared to confirm. In a physique capable,
despite chronic asthma, of almost unlimited endurance, he
nourished an intellect trained to equally sustained labor.
" It is by work that we govern," said a powerful king, and
Stanton was in this particular equipped to be a ruler of
men. He brought to his undertakings a degree of energy
which, according to contemporaries at the bar, had no
parallel. Neither his knowledge of the law, comprehen-
THE CURBING OF STANTON 229
sive though it was, nor an eloquence that evoked praise
from eminent advocates, had contributed so largely to his
successes as the ardor, persistence, quickness of percep-
tion, executive swing, and promptitude of action with
which he plunged into the conduct of a case. When com-
plicated details were to be mastered, night and day seemed
to him as one. In fact, had testimony on this point been
required, any of his associates might have said concern-
ing him, as Cecil did of Raleigh, " I know that he can toil
terribly." Intense earnestness marked Stanton's every act.
His enthusiasm for any cause which he had espoused
would allow of no divided attention. So sharply, indeed,
were all his faculties focused upon the purpose of the
hour, that he is to be classed among the one-idea men
of history. Whatever came between him and his goal
encountered an iron will. He was not to be swerved to
the right, or to the left ; nor could he easily be reconciled
to a backward step, however expedient. The tenacity of
conviction which, at times, characterized his conduct must
be ascribed — after due allowance for a masterful temper
— to religious feeling. Like the Roundhead and Cove-
nanter leaders to whom he has been compared, Stanton
not only discerned the hand of the Lord in human affairs,
but also believed himself, on more than one occasion, to be
an instrument of the divine will. This may account, too,
for the emotional quality in an otherwise practical nature.
Extremes of reason and passion were here strangely com-
mingled. Quick to penetrate through the husks of a fraud
into the very nubbin of things, he was even more swiftly
moved by relentless wrath to insist upon exposure and
punishment. That brief career in Buchanan's cabinet
had been long enough to demonstrate his almost savage
hostility towards official dishonesty, as well as his moral
courage to grapple with treason in high places. Above
all, he evinced a loyalty to the Union that rose above the
partisan creed of a lifetime — that might, in fact, demand
of him, and not be denied, any sacrifice, however great.
230 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
So strong a character is seldom free from the defects
almost inherent in its rugged structure. As Mr. Stanton's
drafts on his own powers were invariably honored, he was
unsparing in his demands upon others. Niggardly of
praise and caustic in criticism, he set up a high standard
of achievement, with no charity for those who fell below
it. This led him to underrate most of the persons with
whom he came in contact, while it may be doubted whether
any one enjoyed his unqualified confidence. Slow to recog-
nize what was good in a man, he not infrequently gave
way, over slight shortcomings, to violent outbursts of
anger. His very earnestness, at times, even when there
were no such provocations, rendered him offensively ag-
gressive. Tact had but a small place in Stanton's make-up.
He drove his wedge broad end foremost. Not only was
he lacking in the grace that sometimes transforms an
enemy into a friend, but he was equally incapable of con-
trolling a temper that, on more than one occasion, changed
a friend into an enemy. After his brusque, impulsive
manner, he scorned ceremony or etiquette. With rude
hands he brushed aside whatever stood in his way. He
might have sat for these lines in a notable portrait of
Gladstone : " Side issues, risks, the feelings of friends, the
prejudices of the day, the lions in the path — all would be
either ignored, or only recognized to be thrust aside, when
he had some great end immediately in view ; and thus he
has been looked upon by many as a sort of Juggernaut,
who, to attain his end, would drive remorselessly over the
bodies of men."
When thwarted, Stanton's rage, taking note of neither
time, place, nor person, expressed itself with cutting preci-
sion ; and his disregard of what was thought, or said, about
him, in return, rendered him an anomaly in public life.
Though careless of popularity, he loved deeply the few upon
whom he bestowed his affections. If these might be cred-
ited, there was nothing of the bear about this fierce Orson
but his skin. They have recalled how easily his mood
THE CURBING OF STANTON 231
shifted from storm to sunshine, and how tenderly his heart
responded to humble suffering. But at this very point
the corresponding shadow in the portrait is darker than
elsewhere ; for the unfortunates, who, with or without
cause, excited his dislike, were not safe against insult,
injustice, and even persecution. Some of the man's per-
sonal prejudices would not have been pounded out of him
if he had been brayed in a mortar. Even when shown that
he had erred, Stanton could with difficulty be induced to
modify his antagonisms. He rarely made amends, and it
may be doubted whether he ever brought himself to say,
" I was wrong." His firmness degenerated, at times, into
sheer obstinacy ; his enthusiasm, into intolerance ; his
strength of will, into arrogance. No one who knew the
man courted an encounter with him. Only a master of
masters could control such an embodiment of force.
At the time of his appointment, Mr. Stanton had, in
some degree, manifested most, if not all, of these traits.
They boded no good for the harmony of the cabinet, nor
for the President's authority. So thought the friends
who warned Mr. Lincoln that nothing could be done with
such a man, unless he were allowed to have his own way.
There appeared to be abundant ground, moreover, for
their comforting prediction that " Stanton would run
away with the whole concern." Strangely enough, the
President showed no alarm. He was merely reminded of
a little story.
" We may have to treat him," said he, " as they are
sometimes obliged to treat a Methodist minister I know
of out West. He gets wrought up to so high a pitch of
excitement in his prayers and exhortations, that they are
obliged to put bricks into his pockets to keep him down.
We may be obliged to serve Stanton the same way, but
I guess we '11 let him jump awhile first." ^
The ability and self-sacrificing patriotism with which
the appointee administered, from the outset, the affairs
of his office, secured to him the President's unreserved
232 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
confidence. "I have faith," said Mr. Lincoln, speaking
of the new minister and another, " in affirmative men like
these. They stand between a nation and perdition." He
not only permitted Mr. Stanton largely to control the
details of the War Department, but in matters of gen-
eral policy as well, he frequently deferred to that officer's
judgment. Men of such dissimilar temperaments, however,
working together toward a common end in wholly unlike
ways, naturally had frequent differences of opinion. Their
very earnestness bred trouble. Mr. Stanton, moreover,
conducting his department solely with regard to military
requirements, could not fail to clash with a President who
had to face the complex problems of a civil war, in their
political as well as their strategic aspects. But Mr. Lin-
coln fathomed the man with whom he had to deal. When
a misunderstanding arose, he ignored the Secretary's
flashes of temper, and fixed his attention on the ques-
tion at issue. Indeed, the President exercised tact enough
for both of them. Whether he withdrew from a position
because it was proved to be wrong, or maintained it be-
cause it was right, he seldom failed to treat Mr. Stanton
with delicate consideration.^^ How far this consideration
went is an interesting subject for inquiry, particularly in
view of the not uncommon opinion that the fiery war
minister dominated the President. Such incidents as gave
rise to this belief were neither numerous nor conclusive ;
yet in them may be discerned the grain of truth from
which the error sprouted.
Throughout the entire period of the war, Mr. Lincoln
was beset, early and late, by people who wanted personal
favors in matters that properly fell under the jurisdiction
of the War Department. Those who came with an appeal
from Mr. Stanton's decision were sometimes received as
was Judge Baldwin of California. He applied for a pass
through the lines to visit his brother in Virginia. As
both of them were Union men, there seemed to be no
good reason why it should not be granted.
THE CURBING OF STANTON 233
" Have you applied to General Halleck? " inquired the
President.
" Yes," answered the Judge, " and met with a flat
refusal."
" Then you must see Stanton," said Mr. Lincoln.
" I have, and with the same result," was the reply.
" Well, then," rejoined the President, with a smile, " I
can do nothing ; for you must know that I have very
little influence with this administration." "
The same answer, though sympathetically uttered, con-
eluded an interview with a soldier's widow who asked for
a sutler's appointment, which the Secretary of War had,
under the regulations, refused. ^^ In fact, this whimsical
disclaimer of " influence " with the administration became
one of Mr. Lincoln's favorite resources.^^ Commenting on
the remark, at the time, to a cabinet ojficer, he said : —
" I cannot always know whether a permit ought to be
granted, and I want to oblige everybody when I can ; and
Stanton and I have an understanding that if I send
an order to him that cannot be consistently granted, he is
to refuse it, which he sometimes does. And that led to
a remark which I made the other day to a man who com-
plained of Stanton, that I had n't much influence with this
administration, but expected to have more with the next." "
This explanation accounts, too, for much, if not all,
of Secretary Stanton's seeming insubordination, in the
instances that follow.
If an applicant for military favors went, at the outset,
to the White House, rather than to the War Office, he
may have received from the President a penciled request
in his behalf, addressed to Secretary Stanton. Sometimes
this was granted, but it was as often curtly or angrily
refused. Occasionally passes signed by Mr. Lincoln were
confiscated by order of the War Department, upon pre-
sentation ; and, in certain instances, even more formal
documents were not safe against the Secretary's destruc-
tive fingers. This fact, one enterprising trader learned
^34 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
to his disappointment. He had pursued the President, in
season and out, for a pass through the lines and a trear
sury license to buy cotton. How persistent he was may
be inferred from Mr. Lincoln's complaint of his class, in
general : —
" Few things are so troublesome to the government as
the fierceness with which the profits in trading are sought."
This particular trader must have brought more than
fierceness to bear upon the harassed President, for he
finally received the coveted permit.
" You will have to take it over to Stanton for counter-
signing," said Mr. Lincoln.
The happy man, hastening to the War Department,
handed the document to the Secretary. Mr. Stanton,
taking advantage of military conditions that warranted a
refusal, showed his deep-seated contempt for speculators
by tearing the paper into shreds and stamping upon them.
Our trader returned to the President in a rage, and told
him what had occurred. Mr. Lincoln, feigning surprise,
asked him to describe exactly how the Secretary had
acted. Then, after a moment's pause, he said : —
" You go back and tell Stanton that I will tear up a
dozen of his papers before Saturday night." ^^
The Secretary of War made the most of the discretion
reposed in him. He insulted Congressmen and bullied
traders, impartially, when they brought orders of which
he could safely disapprove. Indeed, — if an anecdote to
which the Hon. George W. Julian has given currency
may be relied on, — he did not, in his fits of anger, spare
the President himself. This story illustrates, better than
any other, the popular war-time impression concerning
the relations between the two men. For that, if for no other
reason, it should be taken into an account which seeks
to explain the origin of the belief that Mr. Stanton was
master. A committee of western men, we are told, headed
by Congressman Owen Lovejoy of Illinois, called on the
President to urge that the spirit of national unity might
THE CURBING OF STANTON 22 s
be promoted in the army by the mingling of eastern
and western troops. The plan, on its apparent merits, as
well as because it was presented by a warm personal and
political friend, interested Mr. Lincoln, who wrote a note
to the Secretary of War, suggesting a transfer of some of
the regiments. As the scheme seemed impracticable to
Mr. Stanton, he refused to carry it out.
" But we have the President's order, sir," said Mr.
Love joy.
" Did Lincoln give you an order of that kind ? " asked
the Secretary.
" He did, sir."
" Then he is a damned fool ! " was the response.
"Do you mean to say the President is a damned fool?"
asked the Congressman in amazement.
" Yes, sir, if he gave you such an order as that."
Returning to the Executive Mansion, Mr. Lovejoy
reported the result of the conference.
" Did Stanton say I was a damned fool ? " asked Mr.
Lincoln, at the close of the recital.
" He did, sir ; and repeated it."
"If Stanton said I was a damned fool," concluded
the President thoughtfully, " then I must be one ; for he
is nearly always right, and generally says what he means.
I will step over and see him." ^^
Nor was this the only occasion on which Messrs.
Julian and Lovejoy had reason to infer that the man
in the War Office dominated the man in the White
House. They called on the President at another time to
urge a certain army appointment for the son of a man
who had befriended Lincoln in the days of his poverty.
The President promptly endorsed the application and
sent them with it to Mr. Stanton, who as promptly said,
"No."
" Let us give his qualifications," suggested one of the
Congressmen.
" I do not wish to hear them," was the reply. " The
11,6 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
position is of high importance. I have in mind a man of
suitable experience and capacity to fill it."
When the callers, still persisting, reminded the Secre-
tary that the President wished their man to be appointed,
he retorted : —
" I do not care what the President wants ; the country
wants the very best it can get. I am serving the coun-
try regardless of individuals."
Returning to the White House, the Congressmen re-
ported their failure, but Mr. Lincoln gave them no
comfort.
" Grentlemen," he said, " it is my duty to submit. I can-
not add to Mr. Stanton's troubles. His position is one of
the most difficult in the world. Thousands in the army
blame him because they are not promoted, and other
thousands out of the army blame him because they are
not appointed. The pressure upon him is immeasurable
and unending. He is the rock on the beach of our national
ocean against which the breakers dash and roar, dash and
roar, without ceasing. He fights back the angry waters
and prevents them from undermining and overwhelming
the land. Gentlemen, I do not see how he survives, —
why he is not crushed and torn to pieces. Without him I
should be destroyed. He performs his task superhumanly.
Now do not mind this matter, for Mr. Stanton is right
and I cannot wrongly interfere with him." ^"
Taking advantage of this purely impersonal attitude
of the President, his war minister did not hesitate, when
the circumstances warranted, to oppose what Mr. Lincoln
wanted for old friends as stubbornly as he planted himself
in the path of political favorites. A case in point grew
out of the so-called Coles County riot.^^ Some southern
sympathizers, living near Charleston, 111., had brought
about a quarrel, at that place, with a party of Federal
soldiers home on furlough. In the shooting that ensued,
eleven officers and privates had been killed or wounded.
Whereupon the military authorities, having arrested a
THE CURBING OF STANTON 237
number of the rioters, had held fifteen of them prisoners,
in Fort Delaware. Their release had, from time to time,
been sought by influential Illinoisans, but without success.
At last, it occurred to the friends of the prisoners that
what the politicians had failed to accomplish might be
arrived at through the instrumentality of Mr. Lincoln's
cousin and one-time playmate, Dennis Hanks. So behold
Dennis, in a new suit of store clothes, presenting himself
at the Executive Mansion, on what might be called a
diplomatic mission. He was afEectionately received by the
President, who gravely handed him the official record in
the Riot Cases to read. Then, as if to continue the joke,
Mr. Lincoln sent him to confer on the subject with the
head of the War Department. Luckily for cousin Dennis,
the choleric Stanton was not to be found. That officer
came to the White House presently, however, for a dis-
cussion in which President, Secretary, and citizen Hanks
took part. Adopting the garrulous petitioner's own ver-
sion, Mr. Stanton pointed out how heinous were the
crimes of the rioters, and declared that "every damned
one of them should be hung." Even Mr. Lincoln's query,
"If these men should return home and become good
citizens, who would be hurt?" failed to move the Secretary
from his position that the prisoners ought to be severely
punished. This opinion the President declined, at the
time, to overrule. So Dennis's errand came to an inglo-
rious close. He soon returned home, where his visit to
the President was, ever afterward, drawn upon for stories
that were not always consistent with one another. Tlie
envoy, of course, carried away an unfavorable impres-
sion of Mr. Stanton, whom he described as a "frisky
little Yankee, ... in a spike-tailed coat." After the great
conference, when the Secretary had left the room, Dennis
said, as he relates : —
" Abe, if I 's as big as you, I would take that little
feller over my knee and spank him."
To which Mr. Lincoln rejoined, with a laugh, that he
238 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
guessed Stanton was a bigger man than he, in some
respects.
" I asked Abe," recalled Dennis, on another occasion,
"why he didn't kick him out. I told him he was too
fresh altogether."
And the President is said to have replied : —
"If I did, Dennis, it would be difficult to find another
man to fill his place." "^
Nevertheless, in the sequel to this episode, Mr. Stan-
ton's domination was found, after all, to be apparent
rather than real. He demanded — not without reason —
that the rioters should have short shrift before a military-
court ; but to this the President would not consent. After
carefully examining the evidence, Mr. Lincoln directed
the prisoners to be returned to Coles County, where those
of them who had been indicted were to be surrendered to
the civil authorities, and the rest were to be discharged.
The required order, it is perhaps needless to say, was
promptly issued by the Secretary of War.
All of Mr. Stanton's arrests were not so defensible
as the Charleston ones. Indeed, it became necessary, at
times, to interpose between him and the objects of his
severity. How to secure these unfortunates substantial
justice, without impairing the Secretary's authority, or
perhaps losing his services entirely, tried the President's
good-humored tact to the utmost. Such a problem pre-
sented itself during the presidential canvass of 1864.
The votes of the Pennsylvania troops were, in conform-
ity with an act of legislature, to be cast in the field,
under the eyes of State commissioners. That some of
these officers should be Democrats, if the election were to
have even a semblance of fairness, was obvious; but for
reasons which were equally clear, prominent members of
the minority party could with difficulty be prevailed upon
to accept the appointments. At this juncture. Governor
Curtin got Colonel A. K. McClure to help him complete
the list. The Colonel applied, among others, to Jere
THE CURBING OF STANTON 239
McKibbin, who, at the suggestion that he visit the army
as a commissioner, instantly said : —
"Why, Stanton would put me in Old Capitol Prison
before I was there a day. He hates our family for no
other reason that I know of than that my father was one
of his best friends in Pittsburg, when he needed a friend."
McClure assured him that the Secretary of War would
not attempt any violence against a man who held Governor
Curtin's commission. Yet it was only after the Colonel
had pledged himself to protect McKibbin, if he got into
any difficulty, that the latter consented to serve. He duly
left Philadelphia for the front, with the other commis-
sioners. They had not been gone two days, when McClure
received from McKibbin a Washington despatch which
read : —
" Stanton has me in Old Capitol Prison. Come at once."
The Colonel hastened to make good his promise. Arriv-
ing at the Capital late in the night of that same day, he
obtained an immediate interview with the President. Mr.
Lincoln knew of Stanton's grudge against the McKibbins.
He had encountered it on several previous occasions, when
Jere's brothers, who were officers in the army, would have
lost well-merited promotions but for the President's inter-
position. It was not surprising, therefore, to find this last
act of enmity, as a glance at the papers revealed, utterly
without justification. A "stupid blunder," was Mr. Lin-
coln's comment. He appeared to be greatly distressed
over the affair, and proposed to release McKibbin at once
on his parole. This did not satisfy the Colonel, who urged
that the commissioner should be discharged. But the
President replied : —
" It seems hardly fair to discharge McKibbin uncon-
ditionally without permitting Stanton to give his expla-
nation. You know, McClure, McKibbin is safe, parole
or no parole, so go and get him out of prison."
With this the Colonel had, for the time, to be content.
He prevailed upon Mr. Lincoln, however, to appoint an
240 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
hour the following morning, at which they might meet
the Secretary of War to have the parole discharged.
Then hurrying to the Old Capitol Prison, with the Presi-
dent's order, he had the commissioner released. On the
next day, at the time agreed upon, Colonel McClure sat
in the President's room, awaiting Mr. Stanton. The Sec-
retary entered, pale with anger.
"Well, McClure," he exclaimed, "what damned rebel
are you here to get out of trouble, this morning?"
" Your arrest of McKibbin," replied the Colonel, " was
a cowardly act. You knew McKibbin was guiltless of
any offence, and you did it to gratify a brutal hatred."
The Pennsylvanian, having given further vent to his
indignation in terms no less severe, demanded a final dis-
charge of the prisoner. To this, Mr. Stanton, who had
been excitedly walking the floor, answered, in his most
offensive manner : —
" I decline to discharge McKibbin from his parole. You
can make formal application for it if you choose ; and I
will consider and decide it."
" I don't know what McKibbin will do," hotly rejoined
McClure, " but if I were Jere McKibbin, as sure as there
is a God, I would crop your ears before I left Washing-
ton."
Mr. Stanton made no reply. He abruptly turned and
left the room. Whereupon the President, who had been
a silent auditor, said, in his jocular way : —
" Well, McClure, you did n't get on very far with Stan-
ton, did you ? But he '11 come all right. Let the matter
rest."
A formal request, however, for the discharge of the
parole was sent, at once, to the Secretary of War, who as
formally replied, in an autograph letter, that the applica-
tion, having been duly considered, " could not be granted
consistently with the interests of the public service." Mr.
McKibbin outlived Mr. Stanton, yet he died a prisoner
on parole.^'
THE CURBING OF STANTON 241
Mr. Lincoln made no secret of his anxiety to avoid
conflicting with his irascible Secretary, whose objection
to a measure was, at times, frankly assigned as a sufficient
reason for its rejection. This was the case when Major-
General Nathaniel P. Banks, commanding the Department
of the Gulf, sought to extend his authority by having that
of his division commander, Major-General E. R. S. Canby,
curtailed. The latter officer had been appointed to the
Military Division of West Mississippi, constructed out
of the departments of Arkansas and the Gulf, in the
spring of 1864, directly after Banks's unsuccessful Red
River campaign. General Banks chafed under the arrange-
ment. But his administrative abilities were held in such
high esteem by the President that several expedients were
tried for keeping him contentedly at his post, where he
was expected to play an important part in reorganizing the
Louisiana state government. As he persisted, however, in
his appeals to be relieved of Canby's authority, Mr. Lin-
coln finally dismissed the matter, with a refusal which
read in part : —
" I know you are dissatisfied, which pains me very
much ; but I wish not to be argued with further. I enter-
tain no abatement of confidence or friendship for you. I
have told you why I cannot order General Canby from
the Department of the Gulf — that he whom I must hold
responsible for military results is not agreed." ^^
And with this Banks had to rest content.
On several of the numerous occasions when the Presi-
dent found it necessary to thwart Mr. Stanton's wishes,
he did so in a way which tended to confirm, rather than
to remove, the impression that the Secretary controlled
him. An instance of this is preserved in another letter
— one of Mr. Lincoln's characteristic pleas for mercy.
His oft-mentioned clemency was not limited to northern
offenders. He could not bring himself to regard the sol-
diers of the Confederacy with the bitterness evinced by
his Secretary of War, whose uncompromising hostility
241 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
toward those who had taken up arms against the Union
had repeatedly opposed itself to the President's desire
that certain penitent prisoners should be set free. This
wish was finally embodied in the following communication
to Mr. Stanton : —
" I am so pressed in regard to prisoners of war in our
custody, whose homes are within our lines, and who wish
to not be exchanged, but to take the oath and be dis-
charged, that I hope you will pardon me for again calling
up the subject. My impression is that we will not ever
force the exchange of any of this class ; that, taking the
oath and being discharged, none of them will again go to
the rebellion ; but the rebellion again coming to them,
a considerable percentage of them, probably not a major-
ity, would rejoin it ; that, by a cautious discrimination,
the number so discharged would not be large enough to
do any considerable mischief in any event, will relieve
distress in at least some meritorious cases, and would
give me some relief from an intolerable pressure. I shall
be glad, therefore, to have your cheerful assent to the
discharge of those whose names I may send, which I
will only do with circumspection." ^
This tactful presentation of the matter accomplished as
much as would have resulted from a positive mandate.
The Secretary responded : —
" Mr. President : Your order for the discharge of any
prisoners of war will be cheerfully and promptly obeyed." ^"
Another illustration of how Mr. Lincoln, to use one of
his own phrases, " plowed around " this sometimes ob-
structive minister is supplied by John Adams Kasson,
who represented an Iowa district in Congress during the
latter half of the war. His constituents desired him to
procure promotion for the gallant Colonel James A. Wil-
liamson, commanding the Fourth Infantry Regiment of
that State. The officer deserved the higher rank, but it
was difficult of attainment. Letters and petitions poured
in upon Mr. Kasson. He was given to understand that
THE CURBING OF STANTON 243
his failure to obtain the promotion might cost him his
reelection. The case was laid before the President, who
valued this particular Congressman both as a personal
friend and as one of the administration's most zealous
supporters. It would not do to lose him for a brigadier's
commission. Accordingly, at the first Iowa resignation of
the rank desired, Mr. Lincoln signed an order upon Sec-
retary Stanton to make the favorite colonel a brigadier-
general. Pleased with his success, Mr. Kasson presented
himself, with the order, at the War Department. He did
not realize what difficulties were still in his way, or how
fiercely the Cerberus at the portals to military prefer-
ment resented the intrusion of civilians. What followed
is best told in Mr. Kasson's own language.
" Mr. Stanton," he says in his Reminiscences,^^ " was
seated on the sofa, talking with a friend, and his immedi-
ate clerk was standing at a neighboring desk, with his pen
in hand. As I advanced, taking off my hat, Mr. Stanton
turned to me to hear what I had to say. I told him my
errand, and handed him the President's order. He glanced
at it, and said, in an angry tone, ' I shan't do it, sir ;
I shan't do it ! ' and passed the paper up to his clerk.
Utterly amazed at his words, and indignant at his tone,
I inquired why he refused to obey the President's order.
' It is n't the way to do it, sir, and I shan't do it.' I was
going on to speak of the merits of the officer, and of the
proceeding, my wrath rising, when he cut me off with
' I don't propose to argue the question with you, sir ; I
shan't do it.' Utterly indignant, I turned to the clerk
and asked to withdraw the paper. ' Don't you let him
have it, sir,' said Stanton ; ' don't let him have it.' The
clerk, whose hands were trembling like an Eastern slave
before his Pasha, withdrew the document which he was
in the act of giving to me. I felt my indignation getting
too strong for me, and putting on my hat and turning my
back to the Secretary, I slowly went to the door, with set
teeth, saying to myself, ' As you will not hear me in your
244 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
own forum, you shall hear from me in mine.' A few days
later, after recovering my coolness, I reported the affair
to the President. A look of vexation came over his face,
and he seemed unwilling then to talk of it, and desired
me to see him another day. I did so, when he gave me
a positive order for the promotion of the colonel to be a
brigadier, and told me to take it over to the War Depart-
ment. I replied that I could not speak again with Mr.
Stanton till he apologized for his insulting manner to
me on the previous occasion. ' Oh,' said the President,
' Stanton has gone to Fortress Monroe, and Dana is
acting. He will attend to it for you.' This he said with
a manner of relief, as if it was a piece of good luck to
find a man there who would obey his orders. The nomi-
nation was sent to the Senate and confirmed."
Soon after this occurrence, when the House was debat-
ing a motion concerning the investigation of the Old Cap-
itol and the Carroll prisons, Mr. Kasson carried out his
threat.^^ Describing what he termed Secretary Stanton's
" arbitrary habit of mind," he denounced this war-lord
for his tyrannical course and his disobedience toward his
chief. To substantiate the latter accusation, the speaker
related to an attentive audience his own experience with
Mr. Stanton. The story not only helped to swell the over-
whelming vote in favor of the resolution, but it also gave
the widest publicity to what was considered an authorita-
tive insight into the peculiar relations existing between
Mr. Lincoln and the head of the War Department.
There is at least one other anecdote of how the Presi-
dent " plowed around " Stanton to reach a military ap-
pointment. In this instance, he had to encounter not only
the Secretary's cogent objection to civilian interference in
such matters, but that alert minister's equally sound rule
as well, against the transfer of volunteer officers to the
regular army. So, when a number of prominent public
men came to the White House one day to urge such a
transfer of Captain John J. S. Hassler, who was serving
THE CURBING OF STANTON 245
with credit in the Thirty-first New York Regiment, Mr.
Lincoln threw up his hands in mock agony and said : —
" Gentlemen, I can do nothing. That rests entirely with
Mr. Stanton, but I can go over and join in a request to
Mr. Stanton to have Captain Hassler appointed in the
regular army."
The Secretary of War received the petitioners with
an absolute refusal. Similar requests, it was explained,
came to him in such numbers that to comply would result
in leaving the volunteer regiments almost without officers.
An ironclad rule had therefore been made against such
transfers, and he declined to break it under any condi-
tion. Returning from the War Office, the delegation met
Adjutant-General Townsend, to whom they related the
whole affair.
"I think I can fix it for you," he said. "Let it be
understood by the President that Mr. Hassler will step
across the street and enlist as a private in the regular
army, at the same time resigning his commission as an
officer of volunteers. He can then at once be promoted."
When the plan was laid before Mr. Lincoln, he smil-
ingly assented, but Stanton had no smile for the officer
who shortly brought him the papers for Hassler's promo-
tion in the regular army. He is said to have given the
man " one of those through-and-through looks with which
it was his habit to chastise in silence those who had done
something they knew was not right," and then he signed
the document.^
The Secretary of War did not always hold himself so
well in hand. There were times when his spleen made
serious trouble, — when, in fact, he did not spare even his
cabinet colleagues. It was then that the President's touch
could be especially delicate, as he evinced in the handling
of a certain disagreement between Secretary Stanton and
Postmaster-General Montgomery Blair. Mr. Lincoln set-
tled the question at issue adversely to his hot-headed war
minister, yet he again skilfully avoided a struggle with
246 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
him. The Blair-Stanton feud was of long standing. It
had antedated the war, and had caused the Postmaster-
General bitterly to oppose Mr. Stanton's appointment to
a cabinet office. As they were both men of aggressive
temperament, they naturally did not work harmoniously
when, later, their department duties brought them into
relations with each other. Several attempts, at the same
time, to involve the President in the quarrel were without
avail. " I learned a great many years ago," he once said,
referring to a controversy carried on by two prominent
Republicans, "that in a fight between man and wife, a
third party should never get between the woman's skillet
and the man's ax-helve." How Mr. Lincoln managed the
cabinet belligerents was illustrated, during the summer of
1864, when Mr. Stanton refused Mr. Blair's request to
issue certain orders that would facilitate the postal service
within the lines of the army. The orders had been
drafted at headquarters, under General Grant's super-
vision, but he waited for Secretary Stanton's sanction.
As this was withheld, because it would " accommodate Mr.
Blair," an appeal to the President followed. After read-
ing the Postmaster-General's letter of complaint, and hav-
ing questioned the bearer. Colonel Absalom H. Markland
of the army mail service, he said : —
" If I understand the case. General Grant wants the
orders issued, and Blair wants them issued, and you want
them issued, and Stanton won't issue them. Now, don't
you see what kind of a fix I will be in if I interfere ? I '11
tell you what to do. If you and General Grant under-
stand one another, suppose you try to get along without
the orders, and if Blair or Stanton make a fuss, I may be
called in as a referee, and I may decide in your favor." ^
The contemplated changes were made without the
orders, and nothing further was heard about this particu-
lar difference.
The foregoing instances of Secretary Stanton's alleged
insubordination, or excessive power over Lincoln, are the
THE CURBING OF STANTON 247
only ones worthy of record that have come to the writer's
notice. They are not all, it is true, supported by docu-
mentary evidence ; yet the standing of the narrators, —
with perhaps one exception, — certain corroborative cir-
cumstances, and the entire absence of conflicting testimony
entitle them to credit. As much cannot be said, however,
for many of the anecdotes of Mr. Stanton's mastery, in
which the newspaper and magazine press have abounded.
Now and then, one of these apocryphal tales has found
its way into some historical work of authority, where it
has served, more than its fellows, to keep alive an exag-
gerated conception of the Secretary's influence over the
President, A typical case is to be found in the Personal
Memoirs of General Grant. He speaks of Mr. Stanton
as " a man who never questioned his own authority, and
who always did in war time what he wanted to do." In
connection with this statement, it is related that Mr. Lin-
coln, on the occasion of his visit to the captured city of
Richmond, issued permission to " the body, calling itself
the Legislature of Virginia, to meet for the purpose of
recalling the Virginia troops from the Confederate
armies." The summons for a meeting which, according
to the illustrious author, " immediately " afterward ap-
peared in the local newspapers, " went very much further
than Mr. Lincoln had contemplated, as he did not say
the ' Legislature of Virginia,' but ' the body which called
itself the Legislature of Virginia.' Mr. Stanton," con-
tinues Grant, " saw the call, as published in the northern
papers, the very next issue, and took the liberty of coun-
termanding the order authorizing any meeting of the
legislature, or any other body, and this notwithstanding
the fact that the President was nearer the spot than he
was."^* The story is incorrect. Mr. Lincoln did, on April
6, 1865, while at City Point and after several interviews
with Judge Campbell, the Confederate Assistant Secretary
of War,^ write to Major-General Godfrey Weitzel, in
command at Richmond : —
248 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
" It has been intimated to me that the gentlemen who
have acted as the Legislature of Virginia, in support of
the rebellion, may now desire to assemble at Richmond,
and take measures to withdraw the Virginia troops and
other support from resistance to the general government.
If they attempt it, give them permission and protection."^
But the call to the members of the legislature was
not published, even in Richmond, until April 12, three
days after the President had returned to Washington.
He then found that Judge Campbell had gone beyond
the authority conferred, and had — we quote Mr. Lin-
coln's criticism — assumed the President to " have called
the insurgent Legislature of Virginia together, as the
rightful legislature of the State, to settle all differences
with the United States." ^* This misconstruction gave the
President pause. He found disapproval, moreover, within
the cabinet, of any plan for reconstruction that even
seemed to recognize the political elements of the Con-
federacy. Most strenuous in opposition was . Secretary
Stanton, who earnestly advised Mr. Lincoln to revoke the
City Point instructions. This the President concluded to
do, especially as the recent surrender of the Virginia
troops to General Grant had removed all occasion for the
meeting. Mr. Lincoln, accordingly, brought the incident
to a close, on the evening of April 12, by telegraphing to
General Weitzel, from the Capital, that the permission to
assemble was withdrawn. Strange to say, General Grant,
himself, the following day, despatched from Washington
to the commander at Richmond certain supplementary in-
structions. To this extent the Lieutenant-General, rather
than the Secretary of War, figures officially in the corre-
spondence.^ So far from countermanding the President's
orders was Mr. Stanton, that none of the messages con-
cerning the Virginia legislature even went through the
customary form of carrying his signature.^
The Secretary of War never successfully opposed his
will to that of the President in any matter concerning
THE CURBING OF STANTON 249
which his chief had reached a definite purpose. Yet Mr.
Lincoln made no display of his authority. He even, as
we have seen, turned it over at times to Mr. Stanton; or,
anxious to avoid a conflict, exercised it with all the deli-
cacy of which he was capable. Few, if any, of the world's
great captains could have managed this truculent lieuten-
ant with so little friction. To that end, concession, per-
suasion, and diplomacy were freely intermingled. When
they failed, however, the President asserted his mastery
with a vigor before which the Secretary's passion and
obstinacy had to give way.
This was the case in the autumn of 1864, after com-
pulsory military service had been introduced. To fill
their quotas, without drawing too heavily on their own
citizens, some communities voted liberal bounties, by
means of which their agents obtained recruits wherever
they could be found. One of these agents, Colonel Huide-
koper, representing a Pennsylvania district, evolved a
crafty scheme. Learning that some Confederate prisoners
at Kock Island, 111., were about to be released and en-
listed for our frontier service, he secured permission from
Mr. Lincoln to pay them bounties so that they might
be credited to his county.^ When Huidekoper presented
the President's order for the credits at the War Depart-
ment, Mr. Stanton refused to obey it. Indignant and
disappointed, the Colonel reported this to Mr. Lincoln,
who repeated the order, but without effect. Then the
President, himself, visited the War Department, and the
Secretary called in his Provost-Marshal-General, James
B. Fry, to state the facts.
" I reported to the two high officials," says General Fry,
who relates the incident, " as I had previously done to the
Secretary alone, that these men already belonged to the
United States, being prisoners of war ; that they could
not be used against the Confederates ; that they had no
relation whatever to the county to which it was proposed
they should be credited; that all that was necessary
250 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
toward enlisting them in our army for Indian service was
the government's release of them as prisoners of war ;
that to give them bounty and credit them to a county
which owed some of its own men for service against the
Confederates would waste money and deprive the army,
operating against a powerful enemy, of that number of
men, etc."
" Now, Mr. President," added Stanton, " those are the
facts, and you must see that your order cannot be exe-
cuted."
Mr. Lincoln, who had sat attentively listening, with his
legs crossed, said, in a somewhat positive tone : —
" Mr. Secretary, I reckon you '11 have to execute the
order."
Stanton replied with asperity : —
" Mr. President, I cannot do it. The order is an im-
proper one, and I cannot execute it."
Mr. Lincoln, eyeing Stanton fixedly, rejoined with an
emphasis that clearly showed his determination : —
" Mr. Secretary, it will have to be done."
" Stanton," concludes Mr. Fry, " then realized that he
was overmatched. He had made a square issue with the
President and been defeated, notwithstanding the fact
that he was in the right. Upon an intimation from him
I withdrew, and did not witness his surrender. A few
minutes after I reached my office, I received instructions
from the Secretary to carry out the President's order." ^
Here was a bitter leek for Mr. Stanton to eat, the
more so because he had such good ground for his opposi-
tion. Indeed, not many days thereafter, Mr. Lincoln
admitted to General Grant that the entire proceeding had
been a blunder. Taking all the blame upon himself, in
his own frank way, he especially exculpated the Secretary
of War, and explained that before Mr. Stanton could
convince him of his error, he had committed himself too
far to recede.^
In determining the proportion of troops to be furnished
THE CURBING OF STANTON 251
by each of the States, the War Department aroused con-
siderable faultfinding. To all the complaints, whether jus-
tifiable or not, the brusque Secretary turned a deaf ear.
He rigidly adhered to the assignment for New York,
under the call of December 19, 1864, although Reuben
E. Fenton, the newly installed Republican Governor of
the State, went to Washington in person, to point out its
inaccuracies. Failing to secure a reduction, Mr. Fenton
appealed to the President, who, having listened to his
argument, said : —
" I guess yOu have the best of it, and I must advise
Stanton and Fry to ease up a little."
Then Mr. Lincoln wrote to the Secretary of War, on
one of his little cards : —
" The Governor has a pretty good case. I feel sure
he is more than half right. We don't want him to feel
cross and we in the wrong. Try and fix it with him."
The War Department did " fix it," by a reduction
of nine thousand from the number of men that had ori-
ginally been required.^
The President's attitude toward Mr. Stanton on these
occasions was supplemented, in comparatively trivial af-
fairs, by an equally firm bearing. One instance of this,
at least, should be cited. It indicates that Mr. Lincoln,
notwithstanding his habitual disregard of ceremony, did
not brook disrespectful treatment in an official matter, at
the Secretary's hands. The head of the War Department,
in the spring of 1862, sent to the Executive Mansion
Edward Stanley's commission as Military Governor of
North Carolina, with the request that the President should
sign and return it. The document was sent back, but
without the signature. Another attempt to have the com-
mission completed met with the same fate. Then Mr.
Stanton placed the scroll in the hands of Major William
G. Moore, his private secretary, with instructions to call
on Mr. Lincoln and ascertain whether he had any objec-
tions to signing it. When the document was presented
252 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
by Major Moore, the President unrolled it and turned
it about as if in search of something.
" Did Mr. Stanton say where I was to put my signa-
ture?" he asked.
" No, sir," answered the messenger.
" Can you tell me," continued Mr. Lincoln, striking
the commission two or three times with his forefinger,
" whereabouts on this paper I am to put my signature ? "
Major Moore had not read the document. He now
looked, and saw Mr. Stanton's name written in a bold
hand directly below the body of the instrument, with the
Adjutant-General's counter-signature to the left. He also
saw, beneath the name of the Secretary, sufficient space
for another signature ; but he was a discreet young man,
so he replied : —
" I don't see any place provided for your signature,
Mr. President."
Then he sought to explain the omission. Interrupting
him, Mr. Lincoln said : —
" Take the paper back to the Secretary of War, with
my compliments, and say that the President will promptly
sign any proper commission that may be sent to him for
Grovernor Stanley or anybody else."
Hastening back to the War Department, Major Moore
reported to his chief what had occurred. Mr. Stanton,
as his secretary relates, showed considerable feeling over
the matter. Ringing violently for the Adjutant-General,
he directed him upon his appearance to draft another
copy as quickly as possible. When this order had been
obeyed, the commission made its fourth journey to the
White House, whence it soon returned with the desired
signature.^^
In this episode President and Secretary appear, as far
as habits go, to have exchanged places. For the volcanic
Stanton — paradoxical though it may seem — had ideals
of regularity, while Lincoln, who was deliberation itself,
did not hesitate to sever red tape, if it lay across his
THE CURBING OF STANTON 253
path to a legitimate end. Occasionally these short-cuts
led through the War Department, much to the annoyance
of the man at its head. In fact, his stern adherence to
established rules, and the President's proneness to set
them aside, led to several sharp disagreements. On ques-
tions of mercy — at times, even of justice — their points
of view were not in the same plane. With Lincoln's
broad humanit}'^, Mars, as he playfully called his war min-
ister, had but little sympathy. The Secretary insisted —
not without reason — that military discipline was endan-
gered by the President's clemency, and by his too liberal
interpretation of the laws. Nevertheless, pardons arrived
at the War Office with irritating frequency. The head
of the department delayed, argued, protested, blustered,
threatened, and — obeyed.*^ To do the last was especially
hard for him when he believed that Mr. Lincoln had
been imposed on. Such an instance is recalled by Henry
Laurens Dawes, who during the war represented a Massa-
chusetts district in Congress. His constituents were inter-
ested in a quartermaster from his State, who had been
sentenced to five years in the penitentiary for gambling
with government money. The convict's influential neigh-
bors, together with a prominent physician and the prison
doctor, signed a petition for his pardon, on the ground
that his health had become seriously impaired, with every
prospect of a speedy death unless he were released.
" I took this petition," says Mr. Dawes, in whose hands
the document had been placed, " to Mr. Lincoln, who,
after carefully reading it, turned to me and said, ' Do you
believe that statement ? ' ' Certainly, I do, Mr. President,
or I should not have brought it to you.' ' Please say so
here on the back of it, under these doctors.' I did as
requested, adding, ' And because I believe it to be true I
join in this petition.' As I signed my name he remarked,
' We can't permit that man to die in prison after that
statement,' and immediately wrote under it all, ' Let this
man be discharged. A. L.' He handed the paper back to
254 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
me, and told me to take it to the War Office and give it
to Mr. Stanton. He saw at once something in my coun-
tenance which led him to think that I had already encoun-
tered some rough weather in that quarter, and had little
relish for more. He took back the paper, and smiling,
remarked that he was going over there pretty soon, and
would take it himself."
What followed was related the next day, by the Presi-
dent, to two Michigan Representatives, in response to
their appeal for the pardon of a deserter who had been
sentenced to death. He told them how, on the preceding
day, he had granted a petition for the discharge of a
convict, and how, when he had taken the order to the War
Department, Mr. Stanton had refused to execute it.
" He told me," concluded the President, " that it was
a sham, and that Dawes had got me to pardon the biggest
rascal in the army, and that I had made gambling with
the public funds perfectly safe. I could n't get him to let
the man off. The truth is, I have been doing so much
of this thing lately that I have lost all influence with this
administration, and have got to stop."
On learning from his fellow Congressmen what had
happened, the member from Massachusetts hastened to
the White House, and asked the President whether the
pardon had been issued.
" He replied that it had not," writes Mr. Dawes, continu-
ing his narrative, " and then recounted, in his quaint way,
the scene in the War Office, much as it had been already
repeated to me. I said to him that I could not afford to
have this matter rest on any uncertainty. ' Retain this par-
don, send a messenger to Albany, and make certain the
truth or falsity of this statement — at my expense, if we
have been imposed upon.' His reply was, ' I think, if you
believe it, I will. At any rate, I will take the risk on the
side of mercy.' So the pardon went out."
When Mr. Dawes, after the adjournment of Congress,
returned to his home, one of the first to greet him on the
THE CURBING OF STANTON ass
street was his " dying " quartermaster. The man's appear-
ance of robust health left small room for doubt that Mr.
Stanton's intuitions had been correct.*^
The President's ever ready sympathy went out, in the
same impulsive way, to a handsome young lady who
called on him, in dire distress. She had been married to a
lieutenant in a Pennsylvania regiment, who had been com-
pelled to rejoin his command the day after the wedding.
He had then secured a leave of absence for a brief honey-
moon journey with his bride ; and on the tour had failed
to see a War Department order requiring all absent offi-
cers to rejoin their regiments by a certain day, under pen-
alty of being treated as deserters. Upon returning home,
after the specified date, he had found a notice of dismissal
from the service. His young wife, leaving her husband
prostrated by the disgrace, had hastened to Washington,
where she told her simple story to the President.
" Mr. Lincoln," she pleaded, in conclusion, " won't you
help us ? I promise you, if you will restore him, he will
be faithful to his duty."
The President, who had listened with a somewhat
amused smile on his furrowed face, said : —
" And you say, my child, that Fred was compelled to
leave you the day after the wedding ? Poor fellow, I don't
wonder at his anxiety to get back, and if he stayed a little
longer than he ought to have done, we '11 have to overlook
his fault this time. Take this card to the Secretary of
War and he will restore your husband."
Later, as the young lady left the office of the War De-
partment, where she had been curtly dismissed with a
rebuke by the Secretary for troubling the President, she
met Mr. Lincoln, on his way in.
"Well, my dear," he asked, "have you seen the Sec-
retary?"
" Yes, Mr. Lincoln," she replied, " and he seemed very
angry with me for going to you. Won't you speak to him
for me ? "
256 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
" Give yourself no trouble," was the answer. " I will
see that the order is issued."
Within a few days the lieutenant was reinstated ; and
not long thereafter, on the field of Gettysburg, he re-
deemed with his life the young wife's pledge.^
Another officer. Captain Edward W. Andrews, who had
been dismissed from the service unjustly, as he thought,
by Secretary Stanton, appealed to Mr. Lincoln for re-
dress. The incident illustrates at once the Secretary's
zeal and the President's manner of checking it, when car-
ried beyond the limits of propriety. The offence which had
aroused Mr. Stanton's ire had been committed during
the presidential canvass of 1864, while Captain Andrews,
as Assistant Adjutant-General and Chief-of-Staff to Gen-
eral William W. Morris, was stationed in the defences
of Baltimore. The Captain, a Democrat who favored
the election of General McClellan, had, when attending
a political meeting of his party, one evening, been called
upon persistently for a speech.
" Forced to say something," as he afterward explained,
" I contented myself with a brief expression of my high
regard for McClellan as a soldier, and a statement of my
intention to vote for him. I made no reference of Mr.
Lincoln, and soon left the hall."
On the following day, when the occurrence was reported
to the Secretary of War, he indignantly commented on
the Captain's conduct, and, without formally assigning a
reason, ordered him to be mustered out of the service.
Captain Andrews, who had been unwavering in his loy-
alty to the Union, determined not to suffer this disgrace
without a protest. Going to Washington, he sent a per-
sonal friend, a Republican member of Congress, to ask
the President whether the commission had been revoked
by his order.
" I know nothing about it," was Mr. Lincoln's reply.
" Of course Stanton does a thousand things in his offi-
cial character which I can know nothing about, and
THE CURBING OF STANTON 257
which it is not necessary that I should know anything
about."
When the case had been stated, he added : —
" Well, that 's no reason. Andrews has as good a right
to hold on to his Democracy, if he chooses, as Stanton
had to throw his overboard. If I should muster out all my
generals who avow themselves Democrats, there would be
a sad thinning out of commanding officers in the army.
No, when the military duties of a soldier are fully and
faithfully performed, he can manage his politics in his
own way. We 've no more to do with them than with his
religion. Tell this officer he can return to his post, and if
there is no other or better reason for the order of Stanton
than the one he suspects, it shall do him no harm. The
commission he holds will remain as good as new. Sup-
porting General McClellan for the presidency is no vio-
lation of army regulations, and as a question of taste —
of choosing between him and me — well, I 'm the longest,
but he 's better looking."
Captain Andrews did return to his post. He was not
again molested by the Secretary of War.^^
A private, equally guiltless of intentional wrong-doing,
applied to the Secretary of War for relief from unmerited
disgrace. He had been sent home from his regiment on
sick furlough. At its expiration, his disability continuing,
he had not rejoined his company for several weeks ; but
had regularly forwarded to his officers surgeon's certifi-
cates of his condition. These had probably miscarried,
for upon his return to the army, as soon as he could
travel, he had been surprised to learn that his name was
on the rolls as a deserter. His fault having been a purely
technical one, he had been permitted to go on duty ; but
the stigma remained on the records. The task of having
it removed was entrusted to the young soldier's friend
and neighbor, James F. Wilson, a Congressman at the
time, from Iowa. He called on the Secretary of War,
briefly explained the case, and presented the accompany-
258 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
ing papers. Declining abruptly to receive them, Mr.
Stanton said : —
" Ah, this is the case of a deserter, is it ? I want nothing
to do with it. We are having too many of them now. We
had better make a few examples by shooting a deserter
now and then. That might put a stop to the business."
To this outburst, Mr. Wilson answered : —
" Mr. Secretary, this is not the case of a deserter, except
in the narrowest and most technical sense."
"That is what they all say," was the reply. "Every
man of them, when caught, or in hiding and asking for
relief, has some plausible excuse. I have no time to spare
for the consideration of the cases of men who run away
from their duty."
Having failed to impress upon the Secretary's mind
the peculiar merits of the case, the Congressman declared
that he should lay it before the President, who would
no doubt restore the soldier to his place on the rolls. To
which Mr. Stanton rejoined : —
" Go to the President, if you please. I will not consider
the case, nor will I execute such an order."
Mr. Wilson, narrating the incident many years later,
writes : —
" Proceeding at once to the Executive Mansion, I placed
the papers in the hands of the President. He read them,
and said, 'If the statements herein made are true, this
soldier ought to be relieved ; for he is in no proper sense
a deserter. He seems to have done all that he could do to
comply with the regulations governing such cases, and to
discharge his duty. Are you sure that the facts are cor-
rectly stated?' To this question my answer was, 'I have
personal knowledge that all of the material facts are true as
stated in the papers you have read ' ; and I explained the
sources of my knowledge. The President handed me the
papers, requesting me to endorse on them the statement I
had made, which I did, and, after signing my name to it,
I handed the papers back to him. He was proceeding to
THE CURBING OF STANTON 259
endorse the proper order on them, when I requested him
to stay his hand for a moment that he might be placed in
possession of some further facts connected with the case.
He complied with the request, and I gave him a circum-
stantial statement of my interview with the Secretary of
War. It seemed to interest him. At its conclusion he
made no remark, but endorsed and signed the order as
requested. He then returned the paper to me, quaintly
remarking, ' Your persistence in this case is right. There
is the order, and I guess it will be obeyed.' I thanked the
President, and was about to depart, when it occurred to me
that another question and answer might be of some service.
I asked him what I should do in case the Secretary of
War should decline to execute the order. He promptly
replied, ' Report the fact to me, but I guess he will obey
that order. I know it is a small thing, as some would look
at it, as it only relates to a private soldier, and we have
hundreds of thousands of them. But the way to have good
soldiers is to treat them rightly. At all events, that is my
order in this case. Let me know what comes of it.'
" The result of this interview," continues Mr. Wilson,
" was promptly reported to the Secretary of War. The
papers were placed before him and his attention directed to
the endorsement of the President. He read it and evidently
was vexed, for with a noticeable degree of feeling he re-
peated the declaration that he would not execute the order.
A circumstantial statement was then made to him of the
interview with the President, nothing being omitted. This
did not seem to affect the Secretary nor move him to com-
pliance. After waiting a moment and seeing no indication
of action on his part, I picked up the papers, remarking
as I did so, ' Mr. Secretary, as you decline to obey the Pre-
sident's order to you, I will obey the one he gave to me,
and report the result of this interview to him at once.'
Leaving the Secretary's room, I proceeded down the stair-
way leading to the first floor of the department, intending
to go directly to the Executive Mansion with my report
i6o LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
of the foregoing interview, and ascertain the further pur-
pose of the President. Before I reached the outer door of
the department a messenger overtook me and said the
Secretary desired to see me. Returning to his room, I
found him apparently in better mood, and his manner
greatly changed. He pleasantly requested me to give him
the papers in the case, and I passed them to him. With-
out further remark he endorsed on them directions to the
Adjutant-General to execute the President's order. This
done, he turned to me and said, ' It seems to me that the
President would rather have a fuss with anybody than
miss a chance to do a kindness to a private soldier. But
I suppose this case is all right. At all events, I like
your dogged persistence in it, and we will be good friends.'
And so we ever after were."
Mr. Lincoln's firmness in the matter was still further
evinced, some days later, when, on learning from Mr.
Wilson how it had terminated, he remarked : —
" Well, I 'm glad you stuck to it, and that it ended as
it did ; for I meant it should so end, if I had to give it
personal attention. A private soldier has as much right
to justice as a Major-General." ^^
If the stern Stanton was disinclined to obey the Presi-
dent's orders when they related to men who had been
unjustly treated, how much stronger must have been his
repugnance toward the clemency that was extended to
wrongdoers undergoing deserved punishment. An in-
stance of this is outlined in two notes addressed to him
by Mr. Lincoln. In the first the President wrote : —
" Mrs, Baird tells me that she is a widow ; that her two
sons and only support joined the army, where one of them
still is ; that her other son, Isaac P. Baird, is a private in
the Seventy-second Pennsylvania Volunteers — Baxter's
Fire Zouaves, Company K ; that he is now under guard
with his regiment on a charge of desertion ; that he was
under arrest for desertion, so that he could not take the
benefit of returning under the proclamation on that sub-
THE CURBING OF STANTON 261
ject. Please have it ascertained if this is correct, and if
it is, let him be discharged from arrest and go on duty. I
think, too, he should have his pay for duty actually per-
formed. Loss of pay falls so hard upon poor families." ^^
That Mr. Lincoln's wishes were not, at the time, com-
plied with may be inferred from the second note, sent
many months later. Having restated Baird's case, the
President wrote : —
" At the tearful appeal of the poor mother, I made a
direction that he be allowed to enlist for a new term, on
the same conditions as others. She now comes, and says
she cannot get it acted upon. Please do it." ^*
This polite yet firm command finally won obedience.
Baird was transferred to another regiment, and was per-
mitted to reenlist.
When other means of staying the President's merciful
hand failed, the Secretary of War had recourse to threats.
So Mr. Lincoln informed his friend Joshua F. Speed, on
the occasion of a visit to the White House, a few weeks
before the assassination. Mr. Speed was present when two
women appealed for the release, — the one, of her hus-
band, the other, of her son, both of whom had been im-
prisoned for resisting the draft in western Pennsylvania.
"Where is your petition?" asked the President.
" Mr. Lincoln," replied the old lady, " I 've got no peti-
tion. I went to a lawyer to get one drawn, and I had not
the money to pay him and come here too ; so I thought
I would just come and ask you to let me have my boy."
" And it 's your husband you want ? " said he, turning
to the young woman.
"Yes," she answered.
The papers in the case were, in response to the Presi-
dent's summons, brought to him by Charles A. Dana, the
Assistant Secretary of War.
" General," said Mr. Lincoln, after counting the names
of the prisoners, " there are twenty-seven of these men.
Is there any difference in degree of their guilt ? "
262 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
" No," was the answer ; " it is a bad case and a merciful
finding."
" Well," said the President, looking out of the window
and seemingly talking to himself, " these poor fellows have,
I think, suffered enough. They have been in prison fifteen
months. I have been thinking so for some time, and have
so said to Stanton, and he always threatened to resign
if they are released. But he has said so about other
matters, and never did. So now, while I have the paper
in my hand, I will turn out the flock."
Then he wrote, " Let the prisoners named in the within
paper be discharged " ; and signed his name. Turning to
the women, he said : —
" Now, ladies, you can go. Your son, madam, and your
husband, madam, is free." *^
The Secretary's threat to resign, it may be added, proved
to be, like its predecessors — a sound and nothing more.
Thus Mr. Lincoln found it — using his own phrase —
" necessary to put the foot down firmly," when Stanton
would have forced shut the gates of mercy. But stronger
pressure still had to be exerted, at times, to keep an open
door in the War Department for the President's appoint-
ments. An instance of this has been recalled by former
Vice-President William A. Wheeler. He relates that while
in Congress, during the early days of the war, he applied
to Mr. Lincoln, before leaving Washington at the close
of a session, for the appointment of his friend, John A.
Sabin, as additional paymaster. The President, assenting,
directed his private secretary to take note of the matter.
A few weeks later, Mr. Lincoln wrote to Mr. Wheeler that
the appointment had been sent to the Secretary of War,
who would notify Mr. Sabin to report for muster into the
service. As no such notification was received, and as a let-
ter of inquiry to the Secretary remained unanswered, the
Congressman, upon his return to the Capital, waited upon
Mr. Stanton and called his attention to the appointment.
" He had no recollection of the matter," says Mr.
THE CURBING OF STANTON 263
Wheeler, " but told me, in his brusque manner, that Mr.
Sabin's name would be sent in, with hundreds of others,
to the Senate for its consideration. Earnestly I argued
that Mr. Sabin had been appointed by the Commander-
in-Chief of the army, and that it was unjust to ask him to
wait, perhaps the whole winter, the tardy action of the
Senate upon his nomination, and that he was entitled to
be mustered in at once. But all in vain. I got but this
reply from the iron Secretary, ' You have my answer ; no
argument.' ^^ I went to the chief clerk of the department
and asked him for Mr. Lincoln's letter directing the ap-
pointment. Receiving it, I proceeded to the White House,
although it was after Executive hours. I can see Mr.
Lincoln now as when I entered the room. He wore a long
calico dressing-gown, reaching to his heels. His feet were
encased in a pair of old-fashioned, leathern slippers — such
as we used to find in the old-time country hotels, and
which had evidently seen much service in Springfield.
Above these appeared the home-made, blue woolen stock-
ings which he wore at all seasons of the year. He was
sitting in a splint rocking-chair, with his legs elevated and
stretched across his office table. He greeted me warmly.
Apologizing for my intrusion at that unofficial hour, I
told him I had called simply to ascertain which was the par-
amount power in the government, he or the Secretary of
War. Letting down his legs and straightening himself up
in his chair, he answered, ' Well, it is generally supposed
(emphasizing the last word) I am. What 's the matter ? '
" I then briefly recalled the facts attending Sabin's
appointment," continues Mr. Wheeler, " when, without a
word of comment, he said, ' Give me my letter.' Then
taking his pen, he endorsed upon it, ' Let the within
named J. A. Sabin be mustered in at ONCE. It is due to
him and to Mr. W. under the circumstances. — A. Lin-
coln.' He underscored with double lines the words ' at
once.' Armed with this Executive mandate, I called on
Mr. Stanton the next morning, who, on its presentation,
264 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
was simply furious. He charged me with interfering with
his prerogatives, and with undue persistence — perhaps
as to the last, not without some force, for I had wearied
with the delay and was a little provoked by what I
regarded as the ' insolence of office.' I told him I would
call the next morning for the order to muster in. I called
accordingly, and handing it to me in a rage, he said, ' I
hope I shall never hear of this matter again.' "^^
The member from New York was always, thereafter,
cordially received at the War Department ; and none of
his requests were again refused by the grim minister who
presided there.
One more episode in this class must suffice. We are
indebted for it to Josiah B. Grinnell, a member of Con-
gress from Iowa during the latter years of the war. He
called on Mr. Stanton to urge the advancement of Colonel
Elliott W. Rice, to the rank of brigadier-general. That
sterling officer had not only shown himself worthy of the
promotion, at the head of his regiment, the Seventh Iowa
Infantry, but he had demonstrated his fitness for it as
well, in the actual command of a brigade. The Secretary
of War, however, according to his wont, regarded this
application as an unwarrantable interference with his
department.
" No use, sir," was his reply to Mr. Grinnell's importu-
nities ; " your case, sir, is like thousands. What we want
now is victories, not brigadiers. We are in a crisis. I
refuse, sir, to make a promise even to consider the wish
of a civilian at such a time. I am sorry. My desk is loaded
with business. I must say good-morning."
A second interview ended as abruptly as the first.
" No use," repeated Mr. Stanton, " in a civilian's talking
to me on the subject, sir."
" Neither," replied Mr. Grinnell, " can I waive a civil-
ian's rights."
" Then go to the President," said the Secretary sharply.
" That would be an offence," rejoined the Congressman.
THE CURBING OF STANTON 26s
"My regard for the Secretary of War would make that
step a last resort."
" Get your request granted and I will resign," was
Stanton's angry retort.
After another unsuccessful effort Mr. Grinnell did go
to the President.
" What does Stanton say?" asked Mr. Lincoln.
" Nothing," was the answer, " will not even look up the
papers."
"Yes, I know," responded the President, "the cases
like yours are himdreds, and it disturbs him — even my
hint that we may move up the boys and encourage enlist-
ments. It is a very delicate question. Don't be impatient,
but get on the right side of a very good officer."
When our undaunted Congressman next presented him-
self at the Executive Mansion, Mr. Lincoln said : —
" Stanton was fairly mad on the suggestion of promo-
tion by civilians or members of Congress."
To which Mr. Grinnell replied : —
" I base my claim on the recommendations of superior
officers in the field."
"You get the facts," suggested Mr. Lincoln, "and
quietly say the President hopes your request will be
granted."
There followed still another interview, as Mr. Lincoln
was returning from a walk in which he had vainly tried
to shift the weary burden of the cares that beset him.
" I cannot attempt to make Stanton over at this stage,"
he declared. " You will win, if patient."
But as they reached the White House door, the Presi-
dent asked : —
" Have you a slip of paper ? "
Resting the scrap that had been handed to him against
fene of the columns, he addressed this note to Mr. Stanton :
" Sir, — ■■ Without an if or an and, let Colonel Elliott W.
Rice be made a Brigadier- General in the United States
army. — A. Lincoln."
266 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Giving this to Mr. Grinnell, the President added : —
" Report, if necessary, from the War Office."
When the order was presented at the department, the
Secretary muttered, as he tossed it into his waste basket :
" I will resign."
But as the Congressman turned to go, he said, with a
smile : —
" Wait, Mr. Grinnell ; come over and take dinner with
me." ^2
Colonel Rice was duly commissioned a brigadier. Not
long afterward, the member from the Fourth Iowa District
secured a military appointment for one friend, and a pro-
motion in the army for another, on demand. It is a note-
worthy fact, moreover, that Mr. Grinnell, like Mr. Wilson
and Mr. Wheeler, won by his spirit the arrogant Stanton's
good-will, or a semblance thereof. For the Secretary of
War may be said to have reversed, on occasion, the maxim
of that other great minister, Cardinal Richelieu, and to
have conciliated when he could not crush.
Military appointments of far greater importance than
those of brigadiers and paymasters were made by the
President in the teeth of Mr. Stanton's opposition. All
the power at the war-lord's command was exerted in vain,
at certain junctures, to prevent the advancement, sever-
ally, of Rosecrans, Hooker, and McClellan. The first of
these became commander of the Army of the Ohio, under
peculiar circumstances. When it was decided to remove
General Buell from that place, the choice of the adminis-
tration fell upon one of the Secretary's favorites, General
George H. Thomas of Virginia. As soon as an order
directing this change reached headquarters, at Louisville,
the army was turned over to Thomas, who was, at the
time, in command of the First Division.^^ That officer,
however, as promptly, despatched a request to Washing-
ton for Buell's immediate restoration.
" General Buell's preparations," it read, " have been
completed to move against the enemy, and I therefore
THE CURBING OF STANTON 267
respectfully ask that he may be retained in command.
My position is very embarrassing, not being as well in-
formed as I should be as the commander of this army
and on the assumption of such a responsibility." ^*
Upon receipt of this appeal Buell was reinstated. But
within a few weeks — after he had fought the indeci-
sive battle of Perry ville — dissatisfaction with his course
revived, and led to his final removal. The selection of
his successor gave Mr. Lincoln some trouble ; for the Sec-
retary of the Treasury, as well as the Secretary of War,
had a candidate. Mr. Chase urged the appointment of
General William Starke Rosecrans, whose successes in
western Virginia and northern Mississippi had brought
him into prominence. A blunt, impulsive soldier, indiffer-
ent to the opinions — on military matters — of civilians,
however lofty, " Old Rosy," as the soldiers fondly called
him, had failed to win Mr. Stanton's favor. So the Sec-
retary of War hotly opposed his advancement and, with
equal vehemence, advocated the appointment of Thomas,
who had so magnanimously declined the command, several
weeks before. The President, having listened patiently to
both his Secretaries, said : —
"Let the Virginian wait. We will try Rosecrans.""
The details of the discussion have not been preserved,
but Mr. Stanton's behavior, after he left the Executive
Mansion, indicated how entirely his wishes had been ig-
nored. Flushed with anger, he returned to his office, and
said abruptly to an officer who had previously excited his
wrath by suggesting the appointment of Rosecrans : —
" Well, you have your choice of idiots. Now look out
for frightful disasters." ^^
Mr. Stanton then issued the orders which placed General
Rosecrans, as General Buell's successor, in command of
the newly constituted Department of the Cumberland.
Three months later, the President and the Secretary of
War were again at variance over the selection of a com-
mander — this time, for the Army of the Potomac. The
268 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
noble but ill-fated troops composing that body had, after
the disaster of Fredericksburg and the hardships of the
so-called " mud march," regained the winter camp near
Falmouth. Here their commander, Major-General Am-
brose E. Burnside, humiliated by his failures and smart-
ing under the criticisms of some of his lieutenants, had, on
January 23, 1863, written the famous General Orders No.
8, disciplining nine officers, by the removal of five from the
Army of the Potomac and the dismissal of four from the
service." The document had been presented to the Presi-
dent for his approval, with the consistent alternative of
accepting General Burnside's resignation. That loyal
officer, frankly acknowledging the lack of confidence in
himself which he, however, resented in his subordinates,
had twice before asked to be relieved from the command
and to be retired to private life. His successor had there-
fore already been tentatively selected by Mr. Lincoln, and,
strange to say, he was the man whom Burnside's orders
had most severely marked for disgrace — Major-General
Joseph Hooker.^^ In the important engagements of the
Army of the Potomac, Hooker had gained unusual dis-
tinction. He had led divisions and corps with equal gal-
lantry. There was no handsomer or braver officer in the
service than " Fighting Joe," as the soldiers and war cor-
respondents called him.^^ His commanding appearance
and engaging manner, no less than his dash and skill, had
rendered his presence on the field of battle an inspiration
to the troops. These high qualities were in a measure
offset, however, by the liquor habit, selfish ambition, a
spirit of insubordination, an exaggerated idea of his own
merits, and a proneness to belittle or to criticise adversely
the acts of other officers. His unrestrained censure of his
superiors, civil as well as military, after the battle of
Fredericksburg, had moved General Burnside to say of
him, in the orders submitted to the President : —
" General Joseph Hooker, Major-General of Volunteers
and Brigadier-General U. S. Army, having been guilty
THE CURBING OF STANTON 269
of unjust and unnecessary criticisms of the actions of
his superior officers, and of the authorities, and having,
by the general tone of his conversation, endeavored to cre-
ate distrust in the minds of officers who have associated
with him, and having, by omissions and otherwise, made
reports and statements which were calculated to create
incorrect impressions, and for habitually speaking in dis-
paraging terms of other officers, is hereby dismissed the
service of the United States as a man unfit to hold an
important commission during a crisis like the present, when
so much patience, charity, confidence, consideration, and
patriotism are due from every soldier in the field." ^
In conjunction with this arraignment of Hooker, it should
be said that Mr. Stanton had, for some time, opposed his
elevation to an independent command. Notwithstanding
the General's ability, courage, and personal popularity,
his faults unfitted him, in the Secretary's opinion, for the
control of the most important army in the service. When
choice of a commander, in the event of Burnside's resig-
nation, was nevertheless found to lie between Hooker and
General George G. Meade, the head of the War Depart-
ment took the position that the former was not to be
appointed in any contingency. On the other hand, the
President, recognizing the importance of making a selec-
tion that would be equally acceptable to the army and to
the country at large, inclined toward "Fighting Joe."
" Hooker does talk badly," he admitted, when his attention
was called to that officer's indiscreet language concerning
General Burnside and himself ; " but the trouble is, he is
stronger with the country to-day than any other man." ^^
This strength was augmented by the friendship of Secre-
tary Chase, who — again in opposition to Secretary Stan-
ton — had, for some time, urged General Hooker's ad-
vancement.®" In return for this support the General was
expected to throw the weight of whatever military glory
he might gain, in favor of Mr. Chase's presidential aspi-
rations. As the intrigue came to the knowledge of Mr.
270 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Stanton, his personal loyalty to Mr. Lincoln, no less than
his distrust of General Hooker, rendered unavailing the
repeated efforts that were made to remove his opposition.
Whether or not he called the President's attention to the
electioneering aspect of the matter is not known ; but, in
his eagerness to prevent the appointment, he is not likely
to have omitted it. If the appeal to Mr. Lincoln's political
interests was made, it failed, as had all other arguments,
to move him from the conclusion that circumstances re-
quired the selection of Hooker.^^ The President, having
declined to disorganize the already demoralized Army of
the Potomac by approving of the drastic measures de-
manded by its commander, directed the Secretary of War
to issue orders relieving General Burnside and assigning
General Hooker to his place. When this decision was
announced, Mr. Stanton's first impulse was to resign. Then
cooler counsels prevailed. He not only remained faithfully
at his post, but he also supported the new commander to
the utmost of his power, until the defeat at Chancellors-
ville added the name of Hooker to the dreary list of gen-
erals who led the Army of the Potomac to disaster.
The operations of " this poor old strategy-possessed
army " had been hampered, from time to time, by the ne-
cessity for defending Washington. The loss of the north-
ern Capital, particularly in the earlier years of the war,
would, from a diplomatic no less than from a military
point of view, have been a serious blow to the Union cause.
This fact was appreciated more keenly, perhaps, by the
Secretary of War than by any other member of the ad-
ministration. His anxiety on the subject previous to and
during General McClellan's Peninsular campaign led to
conflicts of opinion between Mr. Stanton and the Presi-
dent. As the affair involved their only recorded disagree-
ments in important strategical matters, it has an interest
beyond that created by the endless discussions over who
was and who was not to blame for the failure of that expe-
dition. During the winter of 1861-62, Mr. Lincoln, with
THE CURBING OF STANTON 271
a view to the protection of Washington while attacking
Richmond, had advocated an early opening of the spring
campaign by a direct march overland upon the Confeder-
ate Capital. This plan, though warmly approved of by
Secretary Stanton and certain prominent military men,
was as earnestly opposed by General McClellan, who
urged an advance by way of the lower Chesapeake Bay
with a base at Urbana. After much discussion, the plans
were, with the consent of the President, submitted by
General McClellan on March 8, 1862, to a council of divi-
sion commanders. As eight of these out of twelve voted
in favor of the Urbana route, Mr. Lincoln acquiesced.^*
Not so, Mr. Stanton, whose confidence in the general
commanding the army was rapidly waning. McClellan's
assurances that the movement would " not at all expose
the City of Washington to danger," and that he regarded
" success as certain by all the chances of war," ^^ did not
satisfy the head of the War Department. He still objected
to the project under which more than one hundred thou-
sand troops were to be set afloat in wooden bottoms, to
seek a battle-field many miles away, while the enemy lay
fortified before the Capital.
" We can do nothing else," said the President, " than
adopt this plan, and discard all others ; with eight out of
twelve division commanders approving it, we can't reject
it and adopt another, without assuming all the responsi-
bility in case of the failure of the one we adopt."
The Secretary took issue with Mr. Lincoln as to his
method of computation.
" Who are the eight generals," he asked, " upon whose
votes you are going to adopt the proposed plan of cam-
paign ? All made so since General McClellan assumed
command, and upon his recommendation, influenced by
his views, and subservient to his wishes, while the other
four are beyond these influences, so that in fact you have
in this decision only the operation of one man's mind." ^
This clever, though not entirely correct analj'^sis of the
272 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
vote reversed the odds of eight against four in support
of McClellan so that they became four to one in favor of
Mr. Lincoln's plan. Admitting the apparent force of the
argument, he remained, however, steadfast in his decision
to abide by the action of the council ; and instructed Mr.
Stanton to proceed with the preparations for the cam-
paign. How chagrined the Secretary felt over his lack of
influence was revealed at a conference held, about this
time, with the Committee on the Conduct of the War.
" He was thoroughly discouraged," says one of the mem-
bers. " He told us the President had gone back to his
first love as to General McClellan, and that it was need-
less for him or for us to labor with him, although he had
finally been prevailed on to restrict McClellan's command
to the Army of the Potomac." ^^ One other crumb of
comfort the disappointed Stanton had carried away from
his discussion with the Executive. Their interview closed
with the President's assurance that sufficient troops should
be retained for the protection of the Capital. To this end,
on the day the division commanders met, Mr. Lincoln
ordered : —
" No change of the base of operations of the Army of
the Potomac shall be made without leaving in and about
Washington such a force as in the opinion of the General-
in-Chief and the commanders of all the army corps shall
leave said city entirely secure." ^^
When the evacuation of Manassas and Centreville, on
the following day, rendered a change of plan necessary,
General McClellan submitted the question with the Pre-
sident's order to four newly created corps commanders,
Generals McDowell, Sumner, Heintzelman, and Keyes.
They unanimously approved of his alternative route by
way of the peninsula between the York and the James
rivers, with a base at Fortress Monroe, providing, among
other things, that the troops left in the forts on the Po-
tomac and in front of the Virginia line to cover Wash-
ington should be " such as to give an entire feeling of
THE CURBING OF STANTON 273
security for its safety from menace." This required from
40,000 to 55,000 men, according to the several stipula-
tions made by the corps commanders.^ Their conclusions
were, with General McClellan's concurrence, reported to
the Secretary of War, who, responding with the Presi-
dent's assent, took occasion again to repeat the command,
" Leave Washington entirely secure." ^^
Immediately after General McClellan had, with part
jof his troops, embarked for the Peninsula, alarm spread
through the city at the rumor that it had been left inade-
quately guarded. Such neglect of orders, particularly in
view of the stress laid upon them, was almost incredi-
ble. Nevertheless, Secretary Stanton at once called upon
General James S. Wadsworth, Military Governor of the
District of Columbia, to make a report of the forces
left under his command for its defence. In reply. Gen-
eral Wadsworth stated that he had 19,000 available men,
most of them " new and imperfectly disciplined." About
4500 of these were, under General McClellan's orders, to
be sent to Manassas, Warrenton, and Budd's Ferry ; while
about 1500 were to join certain divisions, on their way
to the Peninsula.^^ This report, together with a formal
opinion secured from Adjutant-General Thomas and
Major-General Hitchcock, military adviser of the War
Department, to the effect that the force was " entirely
inadequate," and that the President's requirements had
" not been fully complied with," was laid by the Secre-
tary before Mr. Lincoln.^^ Then followed an anxious
conference at the War Office between the President and
the chiefs of bureaus. They agreed with Mr. Stanton in
the conviction that the Capital was not safe. At the con-
clusion of the meeting, the Secretary, under instructions
from the President, retained McDowell's corps, which
belonged to McClellan's army, but had not yet left for
the Peninsula. This command, of about 36,000 men, con-
sisting of Franklin's, McCall's, and King's divisions, was
to have served as a flanking column. The withdrawal of
274 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
the corps from the campaign, at the eleventh hour, was a
shock to General McClellan, who regarded the part as-
signed to it as vital to the success of his operations. When
the news of this change in his circumstances reached him
before Yorktown, he at once — to borrow a phrase from
a letter to his wife — " raised an awful row." ^^
In the despatches to the President and to the Secretary
of War that followed one another in close succession, the
General commanding protested against the action of the
administration, and urgently requested that at least
Franklin's division be restored to his command. Then
arose the quarrel between McClellan and his superiors
that has survived the principal disputants. The last word,
in fact, has not yet been said ; but the evidence is more
than sufficient to prove that the commander brought this
disappointment upon himself by his neglect of the Presi-
dent's orders. So Mr. Lincoln, after his kindly fashion,
stated to General McClellan, whose complaints, however,
that he had not been properly sustained in other respects,
were entitled to consideration. Persisting in his appeals,
he finally telegraphed to Secretary Stanton : —
" The reconnoissance to-day proves that it is necessary
to invest and attack Gloucester Point. Give me Franklin
and McCall's divisions, under command of Franklin, and
I will at once undertake it. If circumstances of which I
am not aware make it impossible for you to send me two
divisions to carry out this final plan of campaign, I will
run the risk and hold myself responsible for the results
if you will give me Franklin's division. If you still con-
fide in my judgment, I entreat that you will grant this
request. The fate of our cause depends upon it." '^
This extraordinary message brought the President to
the War Office for another consultation. The r^orts on
file there showed that the army sent to the Peninsula
already consisted of more than 100,000 men.^ How
greatly it, in fact, outnumbered the force opposed to it
was, of course, not known until some time afterward. ^^
THE CURBING OF STANTON 275
But General McClellan's tendency to underrate his own
strength and to exaggerate that of the enemy may have
been taken into the account by the Secretary of War, who
was once moved to say of him : —
" If he had a million men, he would swear the enemy
had two million, and then he would sit down in the mud
and yell for three." "
At the conference, Mr. Stanton insisted that General
McClellan did not need the troops that had been detached
from the expedition, and that they could not even be em-
ployed if they were restored. He objected, moreover, to
the withdrawal of Franklin's division from McDowell's
corps, on the ground that the entire force, by advancing
over the shortest land route toward Richmond, so as to
keep between Washington and the enemy, could aid Gen-
eral McClellan while protecting the Union Capital. This
argument, although it was sustained by Adjutant-General
Thomas, Quartermaster-General Meigs, Major-General
Hitchcock, and Brigadier-General Ripley, Chief of Ord-
nance, failed to influence the President. Anxious to
gratify McClellan and to give him all the support avail-
able, he overruled the head of the War Department, for
the second time in the history of the Peninsular campaign,
and directed Franklin's division to be shipped at once to
the Lower Chesapeake,
"I yielded my opinion to the President's order," wrote
Mr. Stanton to a friend ; but how vigorously the order was
carried out, he omitted to mention. Before our Secretary
slept that night he telegraphed to General McClellan : —
"Franklin's division is marching to Alexandria to
embark. McCall's will be sent if the safety of this city
will permit. Inform me where you want Franklin to land.
He will embark to-morrow and as quicklj'^ as possible." '^
Without pursuing the narrative of the hapless opera-
tions that immediately followed, it may be added that
when the troops, so persistently pleaded for as a flanking
column, arrived below Yorktown, they floated idly in their
276 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
transports, nearly a fortnight. At the end of that period,
just as their disembarkation seemed " about completed,"
the besieged enemy was found, as at Manassas, to have
vanished from the scene.
Two months of fruitless campaigning on the Penin-
sula ensued. They did not improve Stanton's opinion of
McClellan. The General, moreover, at almost every step
demanded reenforcements which the Secretary, for the
most part, could not supply. Each fresh disappointment
intensified McClellan's bitterness toward the administra-
tion, and toward his one-time friend, the head of the War
Department, in particular. This feeling manifested itself
in violent attacks upon Mr. Stanton. He became a target
for the abuse of the General's military and political sym-
pathizers, as well as for that officer's own insubordinate
faultfindings. How far McClellan carried his insolence
may be gathered from the message that he despatched
to the Secretary of War, after the desperate battle of
Gaines's Mill. It closed with : —
"I know that a few thousand more men would have
changed this battle from a defeat to a victory. As it is,
the government must not and cannot hold me responsible
for the result. I feel too earnestly to-night. I have seen
too many dead and wounded comrades to feel otherwise
than that the government has not sustained this army. If
you do not do so now, the game is lost. If I save this army
now, I tell you plainly that I owe no thanks to you or to
any other persons in Washington. You have done your
best to sacrifice this army." ^^
When the message reached the military telegraph
bureau of the War Department, Major Thomas T. Eckert,
the officer on duty, was amazed at this sharp attack upon
Mr. Stanton and, over his shoulder, upon the President
himself. He forthwith laid the despatch before Colonel
E. S. Sanford, Military Supervisor of Telegraphs, who,
exceeding his authority, indignantly struck out the two
closing sentences. Thus mutilated, a copy of the telegram
THE CURBING OF STANTON 277
was handed to the Secretary of War, and he carried it to
the President. Neither of them knew how sharp had origi-
nally been the sting which Colonel Sanford's blue pencil
left but partly extracted. Enough of the accusation against
the government remained, however, to have, under any
other administration, cost McClellan his command. Yet
Lincoln's unparalleled forbearance was equal to the test.
In his anxiety for the Army of the Potomac, he lost sight
of the affront offered by its commander. Not so with
Stanton ; though moved by the danger to send the offend-
ing General assurances of his friendship and support, he
was incapable of overlooking such an insult. He had,
indeed, reached a state of mind that could be satisfied
with nothing short of McClellan's removal. To this end,
the Secretary of War joined hands in a powerful coali-
tion with the Secretary of the Treasury, who had long
before lost confidence in " Little Mac." Together they
urged the President to recall that officer, and to give
Major-General John Pope, commanding the recently con-
stituted Army of Virginia, his post. Mr. Lincoln was
not prepared, however, for so drastic a step. Instead of
removing McClellan, he placed him, together with the
other commanders in the field, under the orders of a
newly commissioned General-in-Chief, Henry W. Halleck.
This appointment, let us say in passing, was almost as
distasteful to our truculent war minister as the Presi-
dent's refusal to dismiss McClellan. Stanton and Hal-
leck cherished a mutual dislike, which dated from their
professional encounters before the war, on opposing sides
in certain of the California Land Cases. The Secretary
is said to have " used some pretty strong language " con-
cerning Mr. Lincoln's selection, when it was announced ; ^
but he speedily established friendly relations with the
new commander. They were soon in entire accord about
McClellan, and when Halleck cast his influence into the
already heavily weighted scale of that officer's declining
fortunes, the President yielded.
278 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Early in August, the Army of the Potomac was recalled
from the Peninsula to be merged, corps by corps, in
Pope's forces before Washington. General McClellan's
chagrin over this inglorious close to his campaign was
exceeded only by the keen humiliation that followed.
Stripped of all but a nominal authority, we find him at
Alexandria forwarding his beloved troops to another com-
mander, and begging, in vain, for the privilege of joining
them on the battle-field. Then came General Pope's de-
feat at Second Bull Run. To what extent, if any, that
disaster may fairly be charged to the tardiness of McClel-
lan's cooperation remains a moot point. It is sufficient for
the purposes of this study to record that the administra-
tion, civil as well as military, was, at the time, almost a
unit in deeming him partly responsible. The Secretary
of War became especially incensed at his seeming disin-
clination to support Pope. While the two days' conflict
was at its height, Mr. Stanton had prepared a letter to
the President recommending General McClellan's imme-
diate removal. This the Secretary had laid before some
of his colleagues in the cabinet for their signatures, but
its language was obviously too harsh even for their angry
mood.^^ The protest was accordingly modified to read : —
" The undersigned, who have been honored with your
selection as a part of your confidential advisers, deeply
impressed with our great responsibility in the present
crisis, do but perform a painful duty in declaring to you
our deliberate opinion that, at this time, it is not safe to
entrust to Major-General McClellan the command of any
army of the United States. And we hold ourselves ready,
at any time, to explain to you in detail the reasons upon
which this opinion is founded." ^^
It was signed by Messrs. Stanton, Chase, Smith, and
Bates. Mr. Blair favored McClellan ; Mr. Seward hap-
pened to be absent. Mr. Welles had declined to add his
name, not because he was out of harmony with his asso-
ciates in the matter, but because he considered the man-
THE CURBING OF STANTON 279
ner of their proceeding " improper and disrespectful to
the President."^ This objection, as well as the promise
made by the Secretary of the Navy to second his col-
leagues, verbally, at the next cabinet meeting, had caused
them to withhold the paper.^^ Whether it ever came to
Mr. Lincoln's knowledge, or not, has been left in doubt.^
There can be no question, however, that he knew how
embittered these men had become against McClellan.
Indeed, the President himself said privately concerning
the General : —
" He has acted badly towards Pope ; he really wanted
him to fail." ^
So matters stood when Bull Run became, for the second
time, a field of iU omen to the Union arms, and Pope's
routed columns reeled back toward Washington.
A crisis confronted the government. Lee's victorious
army was said to be pressing close upon the disorganized
Federals, as they poured toward the city. The Capital
seemed lost. Terror and confusion reigned on all sides.
Halleck was unequal to the emergency ; Stanton, prepar-
ing for the flight of the administration, directed all sup-
plies in the arsenal to be shipped to New York ; Chase
gave orders for the removal of the money in the Treasury
to the same place ; and Pope, as he neared Washington,
telegraphed, " Unless something can be done to restore
tone to this army, it will melt away before you know it."*^
The situation called for masterly action. President Lin-
coln did not falter. He knew that there was but one
man who had the love, as well as the confidence, of those
defeated troops — one man who could restore them to dis-
cipline speedily enough to preserve the Capital. Turning
a deaf ear to the public clamor against McClellan, setting
aside most of his military advisers, and deliberately ignor-
ing the nearly unanimous wish of his cabinet, Mr. Lincoln
called upon the General to take command of the routed
forces, as they reached the defences of Washington. An
official order to this effect was issued in Secretary Stan-
28o LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
ton's name, though that functionary had not even been
consulted in the matter.^^ His indignation found expres-
sion at a cabinet meeting, on the day of the appointment.
" Stanton entered the council-room," reports Secretary
Welles, " a few moments in advance of Mr. Lincoln, and
said, with great excitement, he had just learned from
General Halleck that the President had placed McClellan
in command of the forces in Washington. The informa-
tion was surprising, and, in view of the prevailing excite-
ment against that officer, alarming. The President soon
came in, and in answer to an inquiry from Mr. Chase,
confirmed what Stanton had stated. General regret was
expressed, and Stanton, with some feeling, remarked that
no order to that effect had issued from the War Depart-
ment. The President calmly, but with some emphasis,
said the order was his, and he would be responsible for
it to the country."
" In stating what he had done," proceeds Mr. Welles,
"the President was deliberate, but firm and decisive.
His language and manner were kind and affectionate,
especially toward two of the members who were greatly
disturbed; but every person present felt that he was
truly the chief, and every one knew his decision, though
mildly expressed, was as fixed and unalterable as if given
out with the imperious command and determined will of
Andrew Jackson."*^
A spirited discussion ensued. Mr. Lincoln gave the
reasons for his course. The cabinet disapproved. Even
Postmaster-General Blair, McClellan's friend, appears to
have reached the conclusion that the General could not
then be wisely trusted with the chief command. Of course,
the most strenuous objections came from the two minis-
ters who had led the opposition. Mr. Chase expressed
apprehensions that the reinstatement of McClellan would
prove to be a national calamity. He went so far as to
declare the appointment " equivalent to giving Washing-
ton to the rebels."^" And Mr. Stanton's bitterness, ac-
THE CURBING OF STANTON 281
cording to one of his fellow Secretaries, can scarcely be
conceived.*^ Their combined onslaught at last moved the
President to say, as he did to Seward's senatorial foes,
that he would gladly resign his place, but that he could
not rescind the order. Then this remarkable meeting
closed — closed as it had begun — with Abraham Lincoln
master of the situation. The entire cabinet acquiesced in
his decision. Even the two aggressive leaders, who had
at one point been prepared to make McClellan's dismissal
the price of their further service, bowed to the inevita-
ble. The object of their hostility not only retained his
command in the defences of the Capital, but what is
more, when the reorganized army marched out a few
days thereafter, on the Antietam campaign, he was still
at its head. Secretary Stanton, let us add, disappointed
and dispirited as he is said to have been, gave General
McClellan, none the less, his loyal support.
About two years thereafter was enacted another sig-
n.ificant cabinet scene, when the high-strung Stanton
again tried to force the President's hand. The second
occasion, like the first, was brought about, in a way, by a
Confederate advance upon the Capital, and by the efforts
of the Secretary to secure the removal of an obnoxious
officer. This time, no less a person than one of his
own colleagues, Montgomery Blair, had been marked for
sacrifice. The Postmaster-General's antagonisms in the
cabinet, it should be remembered, were not limited to
Mr. Stanton. Secretary Chase, during his entire period
— recently concluded — at the head of the Treasury De-
partment, had found Mr. Blair, as we have seen, to be
a thorn in his side ; while the Postmaster-General's per-
sonal aggressiveness, as well as his conservative attitude
toward slavery and reconstruction, had led to friction
with still other associates. They might all, perhaps, have
agreed with that newspaper correspondent who called
him "the stormy petrel" of the administration. Mr.
Blair had managed, moreover, to arouse the uncompro-
282 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
mising hostility of Radical Republicans throughout the
country. Their leaders had gone so far as to exact from
the convention that renominated Mr. Lincoln, early in
June, 1864, a resolution which, counseling harmony in
the cabinet, asked by unmistakable implication for the
dismissal of the man in the Post Office.^^ But the Pre-
sident made no sign of compliance. He was fond of
Montgomery Blair, appreciative of his ability, and mind-
ful of the obligations under which the Blair family had
placed the Union cause, during the early days of the
war. In the midst of this clamor, however, for the Post-
master-General's removal, he himself furnished an addi-
tional provocation, which Stanton was not slow to seize.
When the Confederates, on their famous raid under
Early, withdrew from before Washington, they plundered
and burned the residence of Mr. Blair, in the suburbs.
His misfortune, . involving the destruction of a valuable
library, stirred him — it was alleged — to severe criticism
of the officers in command about the Capital. This Gen-
eral Halleck resented. He sent an indignant letter to
Secretary Stanton : —
" It should be known," wrote the chief of staff,
" whether such wholesale denouncement and accusation
by a member of the cabinet receives the sanction and
approbation of the President of the United States. If
so, the names of the officers accused should be stricken
from the rolls of the Army ; if not, it is due to the honor
of the accused that the slanderer should be dismissed
from the cabinet." ^^
This communication Mr. Stanton forwarded, with a
note, to the President, who addressed his reply to the
Secretary of War. Mr. Lincoln's letter, after summarizing
General Halleck's charges, read : —
" Whether the remarks were really made I do not know,
nor do I suppose such knowledge is necessary to a correct
response. If they were made, I do not approve them ; and
yet, under the circumstances, I would not dismiss a mem*
THE CURBING OF STANTON 283
ber of the cabinet therefor. I do not consider what may
have been hastily said in a moment of vexation at so
severe a loss is sufficient ground for so grave a step. Be-
sides this, truth is generally the best vindication against
slander. I propose continuing to be myself the judge as
to when a member of the cabinet shall be dismissed." **
So masterful a treatment of the matter might have
sufficed, but the President thought it was time to assert
himself in another direction. At the next cabinet meet-
ing he read to his astonished councilors the following
curt lecture : ^-
" I must myself be the judge how long to retain in and
when to remove any of you from his position. It would
greatly pain me to discover any of you endeavoring to
procure another's removal, or in any way to prejudice
him before the public. Such endeavor would be a wrong
to me, and, much worse, a wrong to the country. My wish
is that on this subject no remark be made nor question
asked by any of you, here or elsewhere, now or here-
after." ^
A schoolmaster reprimanding a class of unruly boys
could hardly have been more peremptory. Certainly, no
President ever taught his cabinet its place in language
that rang so true to the tone of absolute authority.^
One of these ministers especially needed a sharp word
now and then. Secretary Stanton's temperament, as we
have seen, rendered him anything but an easy instrument
in any man's hand. His very faults partook of the rugged
strength which, viewed at this distance, makes him stand
out as the Titan of Lincoln's cabinet. That the President
controlled so turbulent a force without sacrificing aught
of its energy was perhaps his highest achievement in the
field of mastership. This was due, primarily, of course, to
his insight into Stanton's character. Few men, if any, had
fathomed as truly the sterling qualities that lay beneath
the failings of the great Secretary. For the real Stanton
revealed himself to the President in the daily — at times
284 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
hourly — meetings imposed upon them by the require-
ments of the war. Together they bore the anxieties and
shared the joys of the struggle. Their cooperation in the
absorbing work to which both had dedicated themselves
established between the men, dissimilar as they were by
nature, a bond of sympathy which even Stanton's headi-
ness could not destroy. Indeed, Mr. Lincoln, treating
the Secretary somewhat as a parent would a talented but
high-strung child, — now humoring, now commanding, —
appears to have risen above even a shadow of personal
resentment, and to have overlooked an occasional opposi-
tion that, however violent might have been its outbursts,
always yielded in the end to his authority. His esteem
for Mr. Stanton not only suffered no impairment in these
passages at arms, but stranger still, it ripened into affec-
tion. The President's protection went out unasked to the
Secretary of War, as it did to his other councilors. Mr.
Stanton's enemies — and he had a choice assortment of
them — lost no opportunity for assailing him. When he
was attacked publicly because of certain administrative
acts, Mr. Lincoln, stepping between him and his critics,
assumed the responsibility. When his detractors sought
to undermine him privately with the President, they
made no headway. At times, in fact, they found a tiger
while beating the jungle for a deer, as happened to one
who came with severe denunciations against the Secre-
tary. " Go home, my friend," interrupted Mr. Lincoln,
" and read attentively the tenth verse of the thirtieth
chapter of Proverbs. "^^ If the man turned to the text,
he read: —
" Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse
thee, and thou be found guilty."
No better fate attended the efforts that were confessedly
made to get Mr. Stanton out of the cabinet. So strong
became the pressure in this direction that it aroused
anxiety among his supporters. One of them, Judge E.
R. Hoar, discussing cabinet appointments for the second
THE CURBING OF STANTON 285
administration, in November 1864, said to the Presi-
dent : —
" I hope, whatever is done, that Stanton will be retained
in his position until the war is over."
To which Lincoln replied : —
" Mr. Stanton has excellent qualities, and he has his
defects. Folks come up here and tell me that there are a
great many men in the country who have all Stanton's
excellent qualities without his defects. All I have to
say is, I have n't met 'em ! I don't know 'em ! I wish I
did!"««
The answer makes clear why the foes who sought the
minister's overthrow, and the friends who urged his
elevation to the Supreme Court bench, on the death of
Chief Justice Taney, were alike unsuccessful. When this
promotion was advocated by Bishop Simpson, the Presi-
dent replied : —
" If you will find me another Secretary of War like
him, I will gladly appoint him." ^^
But Mr. Stanton himself contemplated a change. Bend-
ing at that very time under the terrible strain of his
exertions, he looked forward longingly to a release from
his place in the cabinet. When the Surgeon-General,
alarmed over his condition, urged him to take a furlough,
he said : —
" Barnes, keep me alive till this rebellion is over, and
then I will take a rest — a long one, perhaps." ^^^
In a similar strain, after several days on a bed of sick-
ness, he wrote to Mr. Chase : —
" I am better now and again at work, but with feeble
and broken health, that can only be restored by absolute
rest from all labor and care. This I long for, and hope
soon to have. Our cause is now, I hope, beyond all dan-
ger, and when Grant goes into Richmond my task is
ended. To you and others it will remain to secure the
fruits of victory." ^"^
Upon the announcement, in the following spring, that
a86 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Lee was about to surrender, Mr. Stanton accordingly ten-
dered his resignation. A letter which he handed to the
President took the ground that this event would virtu-
ally end the war, and leave him free — with his work
done — to give up his portfolio. Mr. Lincoln is reported
to have been greatly moved. Tearing the resignation in
pieces, and throwing his arms about the Secretary, he
said, according to Mr. Carpenter, who tells the story : —
" Stanton, you have been a good friend and a faithful
public servant ; and it is not for you to say when you will
no longer be needed here." ^"^
The Secretary himself has left an account of the scene.
He relates how the President, with tears in his eyes, put
his hands on the other's shoulders, and said : —
" Stanton, you cannot go. Reconstruction is more diffi-
cult and dangerous than construction or destruction. You
have been our main reliance ; you must help us through
the final act. The bag is filled. It must be tied, and tied
securely. Some knots slip ; yours do not. You under-
stand the situation better than anybody else, and it is
my wish and the country's that you remain." ^^
What could be answered to such an appeal ? The Secre-
tary of War once again bowed before a will stronger than
his own, and cheerfully resumed his duties.
There was something more than mere obedience in this
submission. The minister's heart had been touched as
well as the President's. Stanton's distrust — even con-
tempt — of Lincoln in 1861, had given way, by 1865, to
entirely different sentiments. Like his associates in the
cabinet, with possibly one exception, the Secretary of
War had at last correctly gauged the President's intellec-
tual and moral force. That this force, when exerted to
the full, was well-nigh irresistible, he had, as we know,
painfully learned by repeated but unsuccessful strivings
to get his own way. No one had ever so worsted Edwin
M. Stanton. He was outclassed. With his increasing
respect for Mr. Lincoln's power came, naturally enough,
THE CURBING OF STANTON 287
something like a fair appreciation of the President's
lofty character. Such magnanimity, devotion to duty,
and homely sincerity could have but one effect upon a
man of Stanton's intense nature. He began with reviling
Lincoln, he ended with loving him.
Among the friends who desired the President's reelec-
tion, none labored more loyally to that end than Mr.
Stanton. Every available resource of the War Depart-
ment was employed in Mr. Lincoln's interest. So earnest
did the Secretary grow that on one occasion — Mr. Dana
tells us — he became greatly vexed at the President's
seeming indifference as to the result.^°^ Still, Mr. Lincoln,
as we know, was triumphantly reelected. He had entered
upon his second term, when Stanton's concern took an-
other form — not new, but more marked than ever before.
He became anxious for the President's personal safety.
This was especially so while Mr. Lincoln was on his
Richmond jaunt. When he telegraphed to the Secretary
of War that he was about to visit Petersburg, which
had just been evacuated, Mr. Stanton immediately re-
plied : —
" Allow me respectfully to ask you to consider whether
you ought to expose the nation to the consequence of any
disaster to yourself in the pursuit of a treacherous and
dangerous enemy like the rebel army. If it was a ques-
tion concerning yourself only, I should not presume to
say a word. Commanding generals are in the line of their
duty in running such risks ; but is the political head of
a nation in the same condition ? " ^^
Nevertheless, the President continued his excursion into
Confederate territory ; but he despatched thanks to the
Secretary, and promised : —
" I will take care of myself." ^^
Eleven days later, that promise went by default. A
capricious fate, which suffered him to walk the streets of
an enemy's Capital unharmed, reached him in his own
Washington ; and Abraham Lincoln fell, wounded to
•288 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
death by John Wilkes Booth. A notable group watched
around the bed on which he breathed his last. Among
all the public men in the sorrowing company, no grief was
keener than that of his iron war minister. None of them
had tested, as Edwin M. Stanton had, the extraordinary
resources of the stricken chief. It was fitting, therefore,
that he, as "past the strong heroic soul away," should
pronounce its eulogy : —
" There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world
Jias ever seen." ^°'
CHAPTER VII
HOW THE PATHFINDER LOST THE TRAIL
Among the public men who, at the outbreak of the Civil
War, offered their services to the government, none was
more warmly welcomed than Colonel John Charles Fre-
mont. In him seemed to be happily combined two ele-
ments which the administration then greatly valued —
political influence and military skill. His exploits as the
" Pathfinder " who had conducted five exploring expedi-
tions through the wilds of the far West, no less than his
splendid canvass in 1856 as the first national standard-
bearer of the Republican Party, singled him out for high
command. Indeed, he was looked upon by many of his
fellow countrymen as an ideal leader, for he brought to
the Union cause what animated few of its captains — the
inspiration that springs from a romantic career.
Fremont inherited through his father, a French refugee,
the love of adventure. He was born, in fact, on one of
several expeditions which his parents made among the
southern Indians ; ^ and the untimely death of that father,
a few years thereafter, was due to exposure during a for-
est excursion. At school the boy evinced talents of a high
order, yet there were early indications of a restive dispo-
sition. His formal education came to a sudden stop upon
his expulsion from the college in Charleston, S. C, as he
himself narrates, " for continued disregard of discipline."
This somewhat sobered him, and years of earnest labor
ensued. Teaching school at home in Charleston, cruising
as an instructor of mathematics on a United States sloop
of war, pursuing scientific studies, making railroad sur-
veys among the Tennessee mountains, and taking part in
290 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
a military reconnoissance of the Cherokee country, he
acquired the experience that led to his appointment as
second lieutenant in the United States Topographical
Corps. Then followed government explorations of the
region lying between the Mississippi and the Missouri
rivers, in which the young officer served under Nicollet,
the distinguished French scientist.
While at work in Washington upon a report of these
expeditions, Fremont fell in love with Jessie Ann Benton,
the gifted daughter of the Senator from Missouri. The
young lady smiled upon the lieutenant's suit, but her
parents were less cordial. So Fremont, displaying charac-
teristic dash and impatience of restraint, eloped with her.
This marriage has been described by a not too friendly
critic as " the most brilliant achievement of his life." It
certainly exerted a far-reaching influence upon the young
subaltern's fortunes. Mrs. Fremont, a model of wifely
devotion, was destined to share her husband's aspirations,
in a notable degree ; but what was of greater immediate
importance — his new relationship to her father, together
with his tastes and qualifications, fitted him providentially,
as it were, into Senator Benton's long-cherished dream of
western expansion. Through that statesman's influence,
Lieutenant Fremont was commissioned to make his first
exploration of the extensive and practically unknown
country beyond the Missouri River. Four great expedi-
tions to the Pacific slope followed. They brought Fremont
international renown. His simple, -straightforward reports,
wherein he told
" Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of antres vast, and deserts wild,
Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven,"
charmed admirers of the romantic wherever these widely
scattered narratives were read. Not less enthusiastic were
eminent scientists of the day over the precision and
variety of his contributions to our knowledge of this
y^.
THE PATHFINDER 291
newly unfolded wonderland ; and so serviceable, withal,
were his observations that caravan after caravan of west-
ern emigrants laid its course across the prairies according
to his charts.
Fremont was not merely a finder of paths. On the far
side of his adventures he also found military and political
distinction. Arriving in the Mexican province of Cali-
fornia, on the third exploring expedition, while a revolu-
tion was in progress, he played a prominent role among
the dramatic scenes which culminated in the winning of
the country for the United States. Not less spectacular
were other incidents that presently crowded upon one
another in kaleidoscopic succession. Lieutenant-Colonel
Fremont — he had risen to that rank — acted, for a brief
period, as military commandant of the conquered territory.
Becoming involved in a conflict for authority on the coast,
between General Kearney and Commodore Stockton, he
was convicted by court-martial of mutiny, disobedience of
the lawful command of a superior officer, and conduct
prejudicial to good order and military discipline. A sen-
tence of dismissal from the army followed. But, in view
of his valuable services, of the extenuating circumstances,
and of a recommendation for clemency by a majority of
the court. President Polk, although he approved of the
findings as to the second and third charges, remitted the
penalty. Whereupon Colonel Fremont, with popular sym-
pathy on his side, resigned. Presently came the announce-
ment that gold had been discovered in the new possessions.
California, entering the Union, elected Fremont its first
Senator ; and, as if nothing might be lacking to complete
the marvelous story, mines of apparently fabulous value
were found on a grant which had been bought by him a
year before Sutter's tail-race yielded up its golden secret.
At the proper moment, moreover, though a southerner
by birth and education, he declared himself to be a hater
of slavery. That such a career should appeal to the pop-
ular imagination was inevitable. It presented so strong a
292 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
promise of gallant leadership that the Republican National
Convention of 1856 nominated Colonel Fremont for the
presidency.^ Having served but part of a short term in
the Senate, he was practically untried in statesmanship.
The absence, however, of a political record — that fre-
quent bugbear of public men — rendered him, then, pecul-
iarly available as the nominee of a party in process of
formation from the remains of many parties ; while his
pronounced anti-slavery views supplied sufficient common
ground on which these not entirely harmonious sections
of the young organization could make their first vigorous
fight for freedom. " Free speech, free press, free soil,
freemen, Fremont, and victory ! " was a favorite slogan,
in the North, throughout that stirring campaign. The
Republicans were defeated, but by so narrow a margin in
some quarters that all signs gave promise of success within
the near future. Their electors had carried eleven States ;
and their popular vote, aided by the Fillmore ballots, had
left Buchanan a minority President. To Fremont largely
went the credit of having made this breach in the Demo-
cratic columns. Long after the din of that canvass had
ceased, he was looked upon with a certain sentimental
regard by many of those who had worked and marched
and sung and voted for him with so much enthusiasm.
One of these supporters was Abraham Lincoln. Though
the candidate had not been his first choice for the nomi-
nation, he had labored in Illinois, with voice and pen, at
the head of the Republican electoral ticket, for Fremont's
election. Four years later, when Lincoln himself won the
presidency, it was his purpose to find some appropriate
station under his administration for the leader whom he
had so zealously served. Fremont was talked of for a place
in the cabinet, and then for a first-class foreign mission.
The President had finally decided upon him as Minister
to France, but in deference to Secretary Seward's plans, the
appointment was not made. So it happened that when the
beginning of the Civil War found Colonel Fremont abroad,
I
THE PATHFINDER 2^3
he was still a private citizen. Hastening back to this coun-
try, he received from Mr. Lincoln the highest military
commission within the President's gift — that of Major-
General in the regular army; and on July 3, 1861, he was
assigned to the command of the Western Department.^
The appointment was in accordance with Fremont's own
preference. It was the most extensive and, as he believed,
the most important department in the service.* It compre-
hended, together with Illinois and New Mexico, all the
country west of the Mississippi as far as the Rocky Moun-
tains ; but this, unfortunately, was not to be the West of
our explorer's experience — the West of prairie, forest, and
canon, of Indian stalking and Mexican skirmishing. The
scene of action now lay, for the most part, in the Border
Slave State of Missouri, where the intrigues and pitfalls of
party strife were more to be dreaded than the hardships
or dangers of Fremont's early days. His new path — to
use his own language — " led out from among the grand
and lovely features of nature, and its pure and wholesome
air, into the poisoned atmosphere and jarring circumstances
of conflict among men, made subtle and malignant by
clashing interests." ^ Missouri was, in fact, already, to a
certain extent, the center of those political complications
which made it one of the vexatious problems of the war.
Governor Jackson and Lieutenant-Governor Reynolds,
supported by the General Assembly, had committed the
State, as far as they could, to secession. A convention, on
the other hand, summoned by the legislature with the ex-
pectation that it would complete their work, had remained
loyal to the Federal government, by a strong majority.
This loyalty, however, was not without important reserva-
tions ; for it actuated patriots holding every shade of
opinion, from Radicals, who would have no Union with-
out immediate emancipation, to ultra-Conservatives, who
demanded that slavery and the Union be saved together.
Their "pestilent factional quarrel," as Mr. Lincoln once
impatiently termed it, gave him more trouble in the State
294 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
than the enemy. And how bitter this antagonism became
may be inferred from the President's remark, "Either
party would rather see the defeat of their adversary than
that of Jefferson Davis." Yet these extreme partisans
and the other Unionists, who differed from them in this
or that particular, had one point of agreement — they
all desired the success of the Federal cause. To combine
such warring elements into an effective force against a
common foe, was a problem for a statesman rather than
for a soldier. It called for wisdom and administrative
skill of a type so rare that we may well stop here to
inquire more closely into the character of the man who
was to undertake the task.
Fremont's personality was not less romantic than the
story of his life. Moving in a material age, among practi-
cal matter-of-fact men, he exhaled, as it were, an atmos-
phere of bygone chivalry. The slender, well-knit frame,
with its alertness of action and grace of bearing, could
have belonged only to one who had spent many of his
adult years in the saddle, close to nature. He was slightly
above the medium height, but his habitual dignity of car-
riage made him seem taller ; just as a full beard and long
curling brown hair streaked with gray lent to his dreamy
countenance an additional touch of the picturesque. The
handsome weather-browned face, with its high forehead,
deep blue eyes, and aquiline nose, gave index of mental
vigor. What Fremont had done, however, more than what
he looked, was stamped upon the world's valuation of him.
His achievements as an explorer had called for so many
manifestations of pluck, dash, self-reliance, energy, and
perseverance that, in the popular fancy, he became invested
with qualities well-nigh heroic. Nor did the man's intel-
lectual accomplishments appeal less to the respect of edu-
cated people. His knowledge of the sciences rendered him
a unique figure in politics. He spoke French and Span-
ish fluently, while his command of the English language,
in speech no less than in writing, was scholarly. That he
THE PATHFINDER 295
owed this culture largely to his own efforts is the more
surprising, as it was accompanied by a refinement of
manner to which our so-called self-made men are, for the
most part, strangers. Courtly in demeanor, and amiable
withal, he generally exercised a certain personal fascinar
tion over those who came into relations with him. But
this power to attract men was, unfortunately, accompanied
by no nice discernment into the characters of his admirers.
Accordingly, we find Fremont, from time to time, sur-
rounded by followers who were as unscrupulous in their
designs as they were unblushing in their flattery. Vanity
and ambition — twin products of such influences — colored
the visions in which his imagination abounded. He chafed
under authority at mature age, hardly less than during
the days of his impetuous youth. In fact, a certain spirit
of insubordination was the most conspicuous blemish of
this otherwise amiable character. Like your true knight-
errant, moreover, Fremont did not hesitate, on occasion,
to be a law unto himself : and still further recalling the
romantic ideal, he presently revealed a strong distaste for
the details of administrative affairs. Nor was he lacking,
as we shall see, in these respects only. When confronted
by important questions that required a tactful, sagacious
handling of things as they were, or a comprehensive grasp
of things as they should be, he was destined to prove pain-
fully ineffective. What had served for brilliant leadership
in the limited field of western exploration, hardly met the
requirements of a departmental command on the larger
theater of our Civil War. In brief, though the glamour
that enveloped him had concealed the fact, Fremont was
unfit by nature and by training for the enormous respon-
sibility laid upon him by Mr. Lincoln's appointment.
The new general's initial duties were of vital impor-
tance. His earliest efforts should obviously have been
directed toward harmonizing the discordant factions which,
as we have seen, distracted the Union cause in Missouri.
That commonwealth was especially delicate ground. It
296 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
put to a severe test the famous " Border State policy,"
by which the President labored to rescue Missouri, Ken-
tucky, and Maryland from secession. " These all against
us," said he, " and the job on our hands is too large
for us. We would as well consent to separation at once,
including the surrender of this Capital." ^ Whether the
wavering sections could be induced to wheel into the Fed-
eral column turned largely, of course, on the question of
slavery. Mr. Lincoln, accordingly, during the first period
of the struggle, maintained a conservative attitude toward
that institution. Laying aside his own deep sympathy for
the bondmen, he strove to retain the support of loyal
slaveholders in the Border States, and of their sympathiz-
ers in the North, by repeatedly declaring his controlling
purpose to be the preservation of the Union. He went
so far, indeed, as to proclaim that it was not the intention
of the government to interfere with slavery, as such, in
any of the Southern States. This policy — need we add ?
— had been adopted in good faith. That its sincerity
should be generally unquestioned was, judging from the
President's utterances, essential to the very existence of
the country. He expected his subordinates, as a matter
of course, to cooperate with him along a line so deliber-
ately chosen ; and upon none did this obligation more
palpably rest than upon the commander of the Western
Department.
But, almost from the day of his assignment, Fremont
was a source of anxiety and embarrassment to the ad-
ministration. He became, in fact, one of the keenest of
Lincoln's disappointments. When, after three weeks of
perhaps unavoidable delay, the General arrived at his
headquarters in St. Louis, he found the department in a
state of disorganization which energetic, though often-
times misdirected, efforts improved too slowly. The regu-
lar forces of the enemy menaced him from several direc-
tions, small bands of bushwhackers spread through country
districts the horrors of guerrilla warfare, and neighbor-
THE PATHFINDER 297
hood feuds were responsible for private outrages of every
kind. To meet the military needs of the situation, without
losing sight of its political aspects, required the exercise
of an unclouded judgment. That is precisely what Fre-
mont, at this juncture, did not have. He was surrounded
by a swarm of time-servers, who, for their own ends,
played upon the weaknesses of a brave man. Their ful-
some praise, together with the clamor of the Abolitionists,
whose idol the " Pathfinder " still was, incited him to the
one thing which, above all others, he should not have done.
On August 30, 1861, Fremont issued his famous emanci-
pation proclamation. This announced that owing to the
lawless condition of Missouri, the General commanding
" should assume the administrative powers of the State,"
and establish martial law. Having defined the limits of
military occupation, the document proceeded : —
" All persons who shall be taken with arms in their
hands within these lines shall be tried by court-martial,
and if found guilty will be shot.
" The property, real and personal, of all persons in the
State of Missouri who shall take up arms against the
United States, or who shall be directly proven to have
taken an active part with their enemies in the field, is
declared to be confiscated to the public use, and their
slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared freemen." ^
To render this last startling clause operative, the au-
thor of it at once convened a military commission, which
began to issue deeds of manumission.
By a stroke of his pen, so to say, Fremont had momen-
tarily changed the issue before the country from Union
to Emancipation. That the change might be fraught with
danger to the Federal arms, and with perplexities beyond
calculation to the already overburdened President who had
reposed so much confidence in him, does not appear to
have given the General any concern. That his act, withal,
greatly aggravated rather than soothed the local irritation
which he had been sent to allay, seemed equally unimpor-
298 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
tant to him. For, granting a set-back in the Western
Department, he no doubt thought himself more than
compensated, in the country at large, by a return of his
old-time popularity. Fremont, in fact, now again loomed
large in the public eye. His proclamation aroused the
Radicals throughout the North to the highest pitch of
enthusiasm ; while many Unionists, who had not been so
keen about slavery, applauded what looked at first sight
like a crushing blow against the South. But Mr. Lincoln,
stationed where he could see — and indeed where he had
to deal with — both sides of the question, saw mischief
alone in this extraordinary fiat. Immediately upon its
appearance, the support which he had been so tactfully
nursing in the Border States, especially in Kentucky,
threatened to become antagonism ; just as the embers of
factional difference within the Republican Party itself,
kept previously under control by his cool management,
were stirred, no less suddenly, into a blaze of controversy.
In the excitement that ensued, some of the President's
best friends appeared to waver. Like his critics, they
failed, for a time, to realize that however much Fremont's
proclamation might please them, the impetuous hand
which penned it had thereby sought to grasp not only
the executive powers of the government, but the legis-
lative and judicial functions as well.
This view was set forth, with Mr. Lincoln's accustomed
force, in a confidential letter to his old friend, Senator
Orville H. Browning, who had approved of the manifesto.
Here, in part, is what the President wrote : —
" General Fremont's proclamation as to confiscation of
property and the liberation of slaves is purely political,
and not within the range of military law or necessity. If
a commanding general finds a necessity to seize the farm
of a private owner for a pasture, an encampment, or a
fortification, he has the right to do so, and to so hold it
as long as the necessity lasts ; and this is within military
law, because within military necessity. But to say the
THE PATHFINDER 299
farm shall no longer belong to the owner, or his heirs for-
ever, and this as well when the farm is not needed for
military purposes as when it is, is purely political, without
the savor of military law about it. And the same is true
of slaves. If the general needs them, he can seize them
and use them; but when the need is past, it is not for
him to fix their permanent future condition. That must
be settled according to laws made by law-makers, and
not by military proclamations. The proclamation in the
point in question is simply ' dictatorship.' It assumes that
the general may do anything he pleases — confiscate the
lands and free the slaves of loyal people, as well as of
disloyal ones. And going the whole figure, I have no
doubt, would be more popular with some thoughtless
people than that which has been done ! But I cannot
assume this reckless position, nor allow others to assume
it on my responsibility." *
The President, it should be observed, saw fit, in the fol-
lowing year, to shift his ground somewhat ; but he did so
deliberately, under vastly different conditions, and by his
own act — not at the dictation of a usurping subordinate.
Meanwhile the clash of policy — to say nothing of
authority — between Fremont and Lincoln required im-
mediate attention. Something, moreover, had to be done
at once in order that the General might be turned from
his declared purpose to shoot prisoners. As soon as a copy
of the proclamation reached the President, he despatched
a special messenger to St. Louis with a " private " letter,
which read : —
"Two points in your proclamation of August 30 give
me some anxiety.
*•*• First. Should you shoot a man, according to the
proclamation, the Confederates would very certainly shoot
our best men in their hands in retaliation ; and so, man
for man, indefinitely. It is, therefore, my order that
you will allow no man to be shot under the proclamation
without first having my approbation or consent.
300 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
" Second. I think there is great danger that the closing
paragraph, in relation to the confiscation of property and
the liberating slaves of traitorous owners, will alarm our
southern Union friends and turn them against us ; per-
haps ruin our rather fair prospect for Kentucky, Allow
me, therefore, to ask that you will, as of your own motion,
modify that paragraph so as to conform to the first and
fourth sections of the Act of Congress entitled, ' An act
to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes,'
approved August 6, 1861, and a copy of which act I
herewith send you.®
" This letter is written in a spirit of caution, and not
of censure. I send it by special messenger, in order that
it may certainly and speedily reach you." ^'^
Mr. Lincoln's first point was, as the parliamentarians
say, well taken. That headlong threat of indiscriminate
military executions had shared, without particular scrutiny,
the plaudits bestowed upon the order of emancipation.
Its unwisdom was, nevertheless, obvious to the President.
And how accurately, although nine hundred miles from the
scene of action, had he gauged the temper of the enemy!
On the very day his letter was sent. General M. Jeff
Thompson, Confederate Commander of the First Military
District of Missouri, issued a retaliatory proclamation, in
which he " most solemnly " announced that for every
soldier of the State guard or of the southern army so put
to death, he would " hang., draw., and quarter a minion of
said Abraham Lincoln." " Yet Fremont could not bring
himself frankly to acknowledge his error. On the con-
trary, we find him, six days later, defending his position,
in an answer to the President. This missive ignored, with
singular untruthfulness, Thompson's proclamation, and
said as to his own : —
" I do not think the enemy can either misconstrue or
urge anything against it, or undertake to make unusual
retaliation." ^^
Having thus seemingly maintained his dignity, the
THE PATHFINDER 301
General seized an early opportunity to assure another
Confederate officer, who demanded an explanation, that
he did not intend to violate, under his proclamation, the
usages of war.^^
Point number two in Mr. Lincoln's letter was made
with characteristic delicacy. There was — as we know —
not a word about the General's presumptuous exercise of
an authority which properly belonged to the government ;
nor was there more than a gentle reference to the troubles
which his impulsive act had brought upon the Head of
that government." The President's self-restraint deceived
Fremont, as it did so many other " big men," in 1861.
Our " Pathfinder " managed not to find the kindness that
had inspired the letter ; but he did find — at least, he is
credibly said to have found in it — an attempt to rob him
of his newly enhanced popularity. Be this as it may, he
felt strong enough to take issue with the Executive in
defence of the proclamation. " Modify " that illustrious
document ! — not he. His wife, the daughter of the great
Benton, advanced upon Washington to deliver Fremont's
reply and, incidentally, to bully the President. That one
of the so-called gentler sex should be sent on such a mis-
sion need not surprise us after we learn that during her
stay at department headquarters she was described as
" the real chief of staff." When it is remembered, more-
over, that Jessie Benton had inherited a son's full portion
of her distinguished father's aggressive personality, we
tremble for poor Mr. Lincoln. " She sought an audience
with me at midnight," said he afterwards, in a confiden-
tial chat,^^ " and taxed me so violently with many things,
that I had to exercise all the awkward tact I have to
avoid quarreling with her. . . . She more than once in-
timated that if General Fremont should decide to try
conclusions with me, he could set up for himself." ^^ Such
a menace from such a source was significant. It must
have reminded the President of the rumors which had
persistently linked the name of the lady's husband with
302 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
revolutionary designs. According to some, Fremont was
to establish an independent Confederacy in the Northwest ;
while others — principally extreme Abolitionists, and his
own personal followers — urged that he ought to be placed,
as dictator, in absolute control of national affairs. Yet
these mutterings do not appear to have greatly disturbed
Mr. Lincoln. He took no formal notice of Mrs. Fremont's
treasonable talk, nor of the insubordination that lurked on
the under side of the written message which she brought.
In his letter to the President, General Fremont asserted
the wisdom of the proclamation and his right to make it.
" This is as much a movement in the war as a battle,"
said he, " and in going into these I shall have to act
according to my judgment of the ground before me, as I
did on this occasion. If, upon reflection, your better judg-
ment still decides that I am wrong in the article respecting
the liberation of slaves, I have to ask that you will openly
direct me to make the correction. The implied censure
will be received as a soldier always should the reprimand
of his chief. If I were to retract of my own accord, it
would imply that I myself thought it wrong, and that I
had acted without the reflection which the gravity of the
point demanded. But I did not. I acted with full delib-
eration, and upon the certain conviction that it was a
measure right and necessary, and I think so still." ^^
Fremont's request, whatever may be said of its wilful-
ness, looked shrewd enough. If he was playing politics, —
and there is reason for so believing, — he could hardly
have found a surer method of strengthening himself, in
certain quarters, at Lincoln's expense. Should the Presi-
dent publicly order him to modify the proclamation, they
might stand before the people as the champions of oppos-
ing policies. In that event, the advantage of positions
would, to all appearances, — from a sentimental as well as
from a moral point of view, — rest with Fremont. His
pretensions could not, in the nature of things, fail to
command Radical support ; and the North at large, or,
THE PATHFINDER 303
accurately speaking, a considerable part thereof, had
already, by its first frank outburst of approval over the
proclamation, seemingly indicated on which side its choice
would lie.
Still Mr. Lincoln stood firm. True to the singleness of
purpose that distinguished him at critical junctures, he
adhered to his much-condemned policy. The prospect of
Fremont's rivalry, with all its adventitious strength, was
allowed to influence his course, in this respect, no more
than had Fremont's contumacious letter or the threats of
Fremont's messenger. On the day following her arrival
in Washington, the President despatched an answer to
St. Louis. Touching in his passionless way on the emanci-
pation clause of Fremont's proclamation, he commanded
it to be so modified as not to go beyond the Act of August
6, 1861, and directed a copy of the law to be published
with his order.^^ This made up the issue between them
precisely as the General had desired. It left his prestige
with the Abolitionists unimpaired, and seemed to estab-
lish his status generally as the better — if not indeed the
stronger — Republican of the two. Comparisons between
Lincoln and Fremont were, in fact, now freely made to
the President's disparagement. " He is not a genius," said
Wendell Phillips, from the platform, some months later ;
" he is not a man like Fremont, to stamp the lava mass of
the nation with an idea." ^® But it was in the first throes
of their disappointment over the fate of the proclamation
that the anti-slavery people were especially severe upon
Lincoln. Great newspapers and influential men were
equally unsparing in their censure. Some even went so
far as to advocate the impeachment of the President, and
to spread the talk of a military dictatorship under General
Fremont. " I have never," wrote Judge Hoadly of Cin-
cinnati to a member of the cabinet, " heard wilder or
more furious denunciation than yesterday and day before
found expression from the lips of cool men. Three times
I was applied to, to join in getting up a public meeting to
304 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
denounce the administration and support Fremont ; and
while no such disturbance will be permitted, I am never-
theless certain that there is here a perfect and, I am sorry
to say, very angry unanimity in support both of Fremont's
proclamation and of bis action at St. Louis in other re-
spects, expensive though it may have been. . . . General
Fremont is thus far the favorite of the Northwest, because
he has come up to the standard. And if the election were
next fall, to displace him would be to make him Presi-
dent." ^° That Fremont's removal was commonly expected
at the time is its own commentary on his behavior. But
we have studied Abraham Lincoln to small purpose if we
are prepared for such a sequel to the incident. The Presi-
dent, in fact, declared that he had " no thought of remov-
ing General Fremont on any ground connected with his
proclamation." And this brings us to the reasons why
the gentleman was, about seven weeks later, relieved of
his command.
Troublesome to the administration as were Fremont's
anti-slavery tactics, the General's military and executive
blunders proved to be no less embarrassing. During the
first eight weeks of his control in the Western Depart-
ment, Missouri was the scene of two relatively important
battles. They were both disastrous to the Federal cause,
and in each instance he was severely blamed ; for Wil-
son's Creek, as well as Lexington, is charged to Fremont's
account. The former engagement was the culmination of
a campaign that had begun before the General assumed
command. While he tarried in New York, those precious
weeks after his appointment, came appeals for reenforce-
ments from southwestern Missouri, where General Nathan-
iel Lyon, with a wretchedly equipped force, faced twice
his strength in State and Confederate troops. These calls
for aid became more urgent on the arrival of Fremont at
St. Louis. Letters, telegrams, special messengers, followed
one another in quick succession. They continued, in fact,
almost up to the hour — sixteen days later — when Lyon,
THE PATHFINDER 305
making his choice between a hazardous retreat and a des-
perate battle, attacked the enemy at Wilson's Creek.^^ In
the ensuing action, — one of the bloodiest of the war, —
the Union forces struggled vainly against overwhelming
numbers, and the gallant Lyon fell at the head of his
troops. He had seemingly been left to fight without guid-
ance or succor from his superior officer. There is good
reason to believe, however, that a message from Fremont,
received on the eve of the battle, had instructed Lyon, in
case he found himself too weak for his position, to fall
back until reenforcements should meet him. Yet nothing
was generally known, at the time, about this order, which
has disappeared from the Official Records ; and the De-
partment Commander, when he testified in his defence
before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, omitted,
for reasons that can only be conjectured, to include a copy
of the document among the despatches that he submitted
with his testimony .^^ It is but fair to add that Fremont
gave tardy orders for several regiments to join Lyon ;
though they did not — it should also be said — move in
time to be of any service. Owing to a similar failure, the
Union arms were again defeated in Missouri, under mor-
tifying conditions, the following month, at Lexington.
That place was held by Colonel James A. Mulligan, with
a force of about 2800 Federals, when General Stirling
Price appeared before it, with an army of State troops,
which soon numbered over 20,000 men. Against these
heavy odds the little garrison, confident that it would be
relieved, held out through siege and assault for eight
days. This gave General Fremont ample time in which
to send the sadly needed reenforcements ; but he again
acted too slowly, and when several relief columns had
been set in motion, their efforts to reach Colonel Mulligan
were, by one fatality or another, rendered futile. Despair-
ing of help, that officer, after a spirited resistance to the
limit of his resources, surrendered." Tidings of this dis-
aster were received in the North with a cry of indigna-
•306 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
tion against the General commanding the department.
He was condemned on the face of it by the deadly par-
allel which people drew between Lexington and Wilson's
Creek. To what precise extent these two reverses were
justly laid at Fremont's door need not be determined
here. Granting all the difficulties, however, under which
he claims to have labored, it is the judgment of history
that, with the means at his command, better generalship
could have brought about different results in both actions.
Meanwhile, Fremont's exertions at headquarters to
bring order out of chaos opened up a whole Iliad of woes.
He worked hard, with insufficient means, to organize and
equip an army for a great campaign down the Mississippi.
But obstacles that would have tried a stronger man beset
him on every side. His confused efforts to remove them
laid a train of troubles which he might have avoided only
by exercising administrative skill of the first order ; and
this, as we know, Fremont did not possess. Unfortunately,
what the General lacked in that particular could hardly
be supplied by the persons to whom he entrusted impor-
tant duties. For his confidence was given not to the officers
nearest to him in rank, but to a coterie of parasites, among
whom he scattered commissions and contracts with a lib-
eral hand. This gang of speculators, held together, as has
been pithily said, by the cohesive power of public plunder,
subordinated the welfare of the department to their own
interests ; and went so far, at times, as to crowd out loyal
men from intercourse with the misguided commander.
Fremont's methods not only seriously retarded his opera-
tions, but what proved right here to be of even greater
moment, they, at the same time, estranged from him some
of the most prominent Unionists in the State.
Among those who found fault with the General was
Colonel Francis Preston Blair, Jr. Indeed, his voice most
insistently of all cried, —
" Fie on the chance that brings the righteous man
Close-mated with the ungodly ! "
THE PATHFINDER 307
He had the right to speak, if any one had. A member of
Congress from St. Louis, as well as commanding officer
in the First Volunteer Regiment of Missouri Light Artil-
lery, he had done more than any other man to hold his
State in the Federal columns. By common consent, the
" unconditional Unionists " of that section looked upon
him as their leader. Whatever he did was therefore in-
vested with an importance of its own, regardless of the
President's friendly attitude toward the Blair family.
When their opinion had been taken, at the outbreak of
the war, concerning the best man for Missouri, they had
enthusiastically recommended their old friend and political
favorite. Colonel Fremont.^^ As his nomination to the
presidency, in 1856, was generally credited to Francis
P. Blair, Sr., so his assignment, five years later, to the
Western Department — as far as this may not have been
Mr. Lincoln's spontaneous act — must be ascribed to the
influence of that same redoubtable politician and his two
no less strenuous sons. The older of these, Montgomery,
who had become Postmaster-General, is even said to have
been the sole advocate in the cabinet of Fremont's appoint-
ment. Be that as it may, the General had no sooner taken
command than the Blairs, with the whole-heartedness so
characteristic of the family, threw themselves into his
service. Frank at St. Louis and Montgomery at Wash-
ington advised, planned, and labored for his success. But
Frank's confidence in Fremont, rudely shaken by the
affair of Wilson's Creek, became still further impaired by
the disaster at Lexington, and by what he deemed the
gross mismanagement at headquarters. His letters, after
a time, to the Postmaster-General " were pervaded," said
Mr. Lincoln, in the confidential chat to which reference
has been made, " with a tone of sincere sorrow and of fear
that Fremont would fail. Montgomery showed them to
me," the President continued, " and we were both grieved
at the prospect." ^'^ In a letter dated September 1, this
correspondence reached its inevitable climax. Declaring
3o8 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
the General " incapable of comprehending his position,"
Frank urged that he " should be relieved of his command,
and a man of ability put in his place." ^^ Such a dictum
from the leader who had a few weeks before been Fre-
mont's stanchest supporter could not fail to weigh heavily
with the President. He found in what Colonel Blair wrote,
moreover, striking corroboration of the charges and com-
plaints that had assailed him from many sources ; but
Lincoln sometimes carried to an almost culpable extreme
the loyalty with which he stood by the men to whom he
had given his confidence. For a week — the very week,
indeed, which followed the publication of that trouble-
some emancipation proclamation — he pondered, not the
truculent commander's removal, but how best to sustain
him in his place.
Fremont had evidently fallen into the hands of bad
advisers. Concluding them to be responsible for most of
these weak spots in the General's armor, the President
set out to reenforce it, after his own informal fashion.
He despatched two confidential representatives with in-
structions to look into the condition of things at St.
Louis, and to give Fremont a little judicious counsel.
The visitors were Postmaster-General Blair — who, by the
way, had a West Point education — and Montgomery C.
Meigs, Quartermaster-General of the army. They car-
ried with them a letter written by Abraham Lincoln to
his friend. General David Hunter, stationed at Chicago.
It read : —
" General Fremont needs assistance which it is difficult
to give him. He is losing the confidence of men near him,
whose support any man in his position must have to be
successful. His cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself
and allows nobody to see him, and by which he does not
know what is going on in the very matter he is dealing
with. He needs to have by his side a man of large expe-
rience. Will you not, for me, take that place? Your
rank is one grade too high to be ordered to it, but will
THE PATHFINDER 309
you not serve the country and oblige me by taking it
voluntarily ? " 27
General Hunter took the post of second in command
at St. Louis, as the President had requested ; but matters
did not appear to mend. Like several experienced officers
of high rank, before him, the newcomer failed to get on a
confidential footing with his superior. Fremont's affairs,
in fact, went from bad to worse, and complaints redoubled
on every hand. The resources of the Treasury were
strained by the exorbitant bills of the rascals who were
looting the Western Department ; while what Montgomery
Blair saw but served to confirm the reports of maladmin-
istration, already in Mr. Lincoln's hands. The Postmas-
ter-General, therefore, upon returning to Washington,
expressed his opinion that the good of the service required
Fremont's removal.
An acrimonious personal quarrel with the Blairs had
meanwhile complicated the situation. Mrs. Fremont, after
her arrival at the Capital, on that memorable mission in
defence of the proclamation, had heard about the Colonel's
criticisms. She indignantly denounced them, in her inter-
view with the President, and subsequently made a written
demand upon him for copies of all the faultfinding letters
that had come from the West. These he politely declined
to furnish without the consent of the writers. He was
moved by the lady's heat, moreover, to explain that the
Postmaster-General had been sent to St. Louis, as a
friend of her husband ; and he protested, with no uncertain
tone, " against being understood as acting in any hostil-
ity " toward General Fremont.^ But here the President,
of course, found himself at a disadvantage. He could not
show the confidential reports that made it his duty to
investigate the affairs of the Western Department; nor
could he prove how kindly — despite what had happened —
he felt toward Fremont, by telling that officer's militant
spouse about the message to Hunter. Mrs. Fremont natu-
rally lost no time in reporting how things stood, to her
3IO LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
General, who, smarting under a sense of injury, ordered
Colonel Blair's arrest. Notice of this was telegraphed to
the War Department, with an intimation that charges in
preparation would touch upon the Colonel's "insidious
and dishonorable efforts to bring " the commander's " au-
thority into contempt with the government, and to under-
mine " his " influence as an officer." ^ After an interval
of ten days, Frank was, at his brother's request, released.
He forthwith declared that he, in turn, would prefer
charges against Fremont, who met this announcement with
the rearrest of his now embittered critic. When Colonel
Blair's formal accusations reached the authorities, they
were found to be of a grave character. Charging Greneral
Fremont with neglect of duty, unofficer-like conduct, dis-
obedience of orders, behavior unbecoming a gentleman,
waste of the public moneys, and despotic courses, he sup-
ported this catalogue of his superior's sins with a still
more formidable array of specifications.**
The tangle into which Missouri had, by this time, fallen,
was a source of almost constant anxiety to the President.
Determined upon having things set right, once for all,
he hurried the Secretary of War to the scene, with power
to act. Mr. Cameron, accompanied by Adjutant-General
Thomas, overtook Fremont in the field, after he had started
on his campaign. The Secretary of War, like the cabinet
colleague who had preceded him, speedily arrived at an
unfavorable conclusion. " I had an interview with General
Fremont," he wrote to Mr. Lincoln, " and in conversation
with him showed him an order for his removal. He was
very much mortified, pained, and, I thought, humiliated.
He made an earnest appeal to me, saying that he had
come to Missouri, at the request of the government, to
assume a very responsible command, and that when he
reached this State he found himself without troops and
without any preparation for an army ; that he had ex-
erted himself, as he believed, with great energy, and had
now around him a fine army, with everything to make
THE PATHFINDER 311
success certain ; that he was in pursuit of the enemy, who
he believed were within his reach ; and that to recall him
at this moment would not only destroy him, but rendet his
whole expenditure useless. In reply to this appeal, I told
him that I would withhold the order until my return to
Washington, giving him the interim to prove the reality
of his hopes as to reaching and capturing the enemy, giv-
ing him to understand that, should he fail, he must give
place to some other officer. He assured me that, should
he fail, he would resign at once." ^*
The reprieve was hardly warranted by what Mr. Cam-
eron's investigations disclosed. A report drawn up under
his direction by General Thomas, when they had returned
to Washington, appeared — even after allowing for the
hearsay nature of certain statements — to bear out the
most serious among Colonel Blair's charges.^ So severe
was the Adjutant- General's censure that one might doubt
his good faith, if it were not for the cloud of witnesses
whose testimony against Fremont had, all this time, con-
tinued to pour in upon the administration. There could
no longer be any question as to the President's duty.
Even his much-enduring patience had well-nigh reached
its limit. Fremont's time was up. Whatever might be the
hapless General's grievances, his ability, or his deserts,
the period of his usefulness in Missouri had plainly
passed.^ Aside from weighty considerations of public pol-
icy, moreover. General Thomas reported an instance of
disobedience so flagrant that, under any other President
than Abraham Lincoln, it would have brought the offender
to immediate disgrace. Somewhat over a week, ran the
story, after Fremont had received the President's order
modifying his emancipation proclamation, two hundred
copies of that very document as originally issued were
sent, by the General's express commands, to eastern Mis-
souri for distribution.^^ That there might be no doubt
about so grave a charge, Fremont's order was quoted ver-
batim in the Adjutant-General's report. Yet this piece
312 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
of extraordinary misconduct failed to elicit further official
notice. Had Lincoln paid any public attention to it what-
soever, nothing short of Othello's sentence upon Cassio,
" I love thee,
But never more be officer of mine,"
could have done justice to the occasion.
In a wholly different spirit did the President approach
Fremont's removal. We scrutinize his conduct, in vain,
for traces of the personal resentment to which any other
Executive would doubtless, under the circumstances, have
given way. Even after Fremont's fate had been decided,
Mr. Lincoln attached conditions that left the General
ample chance for escape. With the order recalling him
and appointing General Hunter temporarily to his com-
mand,^ were enclosed private instructions for General
Curtis, who, from St. Louis, was to manage the transfer.
" If," wrote the President, " when General Fremont shall
be reached by the messenger — yourself or any one sent
by you — he shall then have, in personal command, fought
and won a battle, or shall then be actually in a battle, or
shall then be in the immediate presence of the enemy in
expectation of a battle, it is not to be delivered, but held
for further orders."^ Whether this lenity was due to
ordinary military foresight, to Secretary Cameron's pro-
mises, to the protests by Fremont's supporters against his
repeatedly rumored removal, to mutterings in the army
of resistance against such an order, to Lincoln's sense of
justice, to his good-will toward the General, or to his prac-
tice of not displacing favorite commanders until they
had fully manifested their incapacity, or whether these all
and several entered into the President's motives, is matter
for speculation only. The essential facts are that Mr.
Lincoln, so far from trying to get rid of Fremont as a
dangerous rival, did, to the very erjd, what lay in his
power to save him ; and that the General's downfall at
last must be ascribed to circumstances which were as
much under his control as they were beyond the Presi-
THE PATHFINDER 313
dent's. For, when the officer whom Curtis had sent over-
took the " Mississippi Army " in the field, it had neither
fought a battle, nor was it within striking distance of the
enemy. The order of removal was therefore delivered;
and Fremont relinquished his command with a dignity,
as well as a subordination, so perfect that they compelled
praise from many who had, not without reason, looked
for different behavior.^^
Though the expected outbreak among the western
troops failed to occur, men and officers alike — with cer-
tain exceptions — deplored their commander's downfall.
It was an excited camp to which Fremont addressed his
farewell message. He may have lacked military capacity,
but he possessed, in an eminent degree, one attribute, if no
other, of good generalship — the art of endearing himself
to his soldiers. Loud and bitter were their denunciations
of the government ; but more formidable still, as the news
spread, became the outcry of disapproval from Fremont's
political admirers. Their hopes centered in " the states-
man-soldier " — to use Wendell Phillips's appellation —
as in no other leader, during the autumn of 1861 ; and
many of the extreme anti-slavery men among them could
not or would not see that he had been at fault. " If Fre-
mont has been guilty of mistakes, or even of crimes,"
wrote an able journalist, at the time, " there are a million
men now living who will forgive him, in consideration
of his proclamation and his deed of manumission — docu-
ments which will be as immortal as the Declaration of
Independence." ^ What seemed to increase this obliga-
tion a hundredfold was the belief that he had fallen a
martyr to the anti-slavery cause. Even public men who
should have known better looked upon Fremont as a friend
of freedom, sacrificed to appease the slave power. " What-
ever may have been his acts, or omissions to act," wrote
Senator Grimes, one of these blunderers, " there is no ques-
tion in my mind that the real cause of his removal was
the proclamation he issued, and which he failed to modify
314 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
in accordance with tlie President's wishes. That was the
great sin for which he was punished." ^ A similar view was
voiced by Whittier, the laureate of Abolitionism, in the
well-known lines : —
" Thy error, Frdmont, simply was to act
A brave man's part, without the statesman's tact,
And, taking counsel but of common sense,
To strike at cause as well as consequence."
The role of picturesque victim to governmental injustice
was, as we have seen, not new to Fremont. He had, in
fact, mastered the part. So now, as at other monumental
moments of his career, the " Pathfinder " rose, in certain
eyes at least, to heroic stature. From influential Radicals,
on all sides, came expressions of esteem for him, and of
censure for the administration. Press, pulpit, and plat-
foi-m, together with both houses of Congress, made liberal
contributions for a brief season to the work of exalting
Fremont, while putting down Lincoln. How deeply, too,
that spirit moved the people, in certain sections of the
country, may be gathered from this letter, written by
Richard Smith of the Cincinnati Gazette to his friend,
Secretary Chase, a few days after the removal : —
" Could you have been among the people yesterday
and witnessed the excitement, could you have seen sober
citizens pulling from their walls and trampling under foot
the portrait of the President, and could you hear to-day
the expressions of all classes of men — of all political
parties, you would, I think, feel as I feel, and as every
sincere friend of the government must feel, alarmed.
What meaneth this burning of the President in effigy,
by citizens who have hitherto sincerely and enthusiasti-
cally supported the war? What meaneth these boister-
ous outbursts of indignation, and these low mutterings
favorable to a Western Confederacy that we hear? Why
this sudden check to enlistments ? Why this rejection of
treasury notes by German citizens ? Why is it that on
the 6th of November, 1861, not one dollar was subscribed
THE PATHFINDER 315
here to the national loan ? Why is it that it would not be
safe to go into places where the Germans resort, and pub-
licly express an opinion favorable to the President ? Why
this sudden, this extraordinary, this startling change in
public sentiment, on 'change, in the street, in the banking-
house, in the palace and the cottage, in country and city ?
Is it not time for the President to stop and consider
whether, as this is a government of the people, it is not
unsafe to disregard and override public sentiment, as has
been done in the case of General Fremont? The public
consider that Fremont has been made a martyr of . . . .
Consequently he is now, so far as the West is concerned,
the most popular man in the country. He is to the West
what Napoleon was to France ; while the President has
lost the confidence of the people." *°
For the moment, it did indeed look, in some quarters, as
if Lincoln had reaped the whirlwind. But was this storm
fierce enough to bear out Judge Hoadly's warning that to
displace Fremont might result in making him President ?
The next election was still three years distant. As this,
for the time being, precluded political operations, Fremont's
supporters directed their energies toward securing his
restoration to active service. Some of his partisans in
Missouri held secret meetings that did not stop short of
planning treason in their favorite's behalf ; but most of his
friends throughout the North contented themselves with
the orderly presentation of his case. They asserted that
in a purely military command the General would do jus-
tice to his reputation ; and this claim Mr. Lincoln, despite
what had happened, was willing to treat with indulgence.
So, after the first pressure upon the President had subsided,
we find him, one day, calling into the Executive Cham-
ber Henry C. Bowen, the proprietor of the Independent^
who happened to be passing the open door, on his way to
another office.
"Come in," said Mr. Lincoln, in his unceremonious
way ; " you are the very man I want to see. I have been
3i6 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
thinking a great deal lately about Fremont ; and I want
to ask you, as an old friend of his, what is the thought
about his continuing inactive."
" Mr. President," was the reply, " I will say to you
frankly that a large class of people feel that General
Fremont has been badly treated, and nothing would give
more satisfaction, both to him and to his friends, than
his reappointment to a command commensurate, in some
degree, with his rank and ability."
" Do you think," asked Mr. Lincoln, " he would accept
an inferior position to that he occupied in Missouri?"
" I have that confidence in General Fremont's patriotism
that I venture to promise for him in advance," was Mr.
Bowen's earnest reply.
" Well," said the President thoughtfully, " I have had
it on my mind for some time that Fremont should be
given a chance to redeem himself. The great hue and
cry about him has been concerning his expenditure of the
public money. I have looked into the matter a little, and
I can't see as he has done any worse or any more, in that
line, than our eastern commanders. At any rate, he shall
have another trial." ^^
Shortly after this interview, when the Mountain De-
partment was carved out of the steeps and forests of
western Maryland, western Virginia, eastern Ohio, east-
ern Kentucky, and eastern Tennessee,^^ the command of it
was appropriately enough assigned to the "Pathfinder."^
Here he figured, not greatly to his credit, in the govern-
ment's disastrous experiment of opposing to " Stonewall '*
Jackson the three independent departmental commands
of Fremont, Banks, and McDowell. Their efforts to
enttap that brilliant campaigner, in his dash down the
Shenandoah valley, were a succession of failures ; and
naturally so, for only the most efficient cooperation of the
Union generals could have secured a different finish to
the intricate strategy imposed upon them from Washing-
ton. When at last it appeared as if Jackson might be
THE PATHFINDER 317
caught between the converging columns of McDowell
and Fremont, those officers were ordered to the only out-
let through which the then retreating Confederates could
escape from the valley. McDowell reached his appointed
post in time ; but Fremont arrived just too late, and their
alert foe slipped between them. "Too late" has ever been
a sorry commentary when the day is lost. What shall
we say, then, of a general to whom it must be applied
thrice within the year ? Not a little, moreover, of this last
failure was due to Fremont's constitutional disrespect for
orders. According to his instructions from the President,
he was to advance by a route that would have brought his
line of march between the enemy and the southern exit
from the valley, for which Jackson was headed. Taking
what he believed to be a more practicable road, without
notifying Mr. Lincoln of so important a modification of
his orders, Fremont made a detour that led him several
days' march away from the Confederate line of retreat,
and brought him out, when he did reach the strategic
point, in the rear of the enemy, just as the last of Jack-
son's troops were leaving that place.
Though Fremont failed, his reasons, as usual, were
excellent. The road prescribed by the President had —
we are told — been "obstructed"; it would have been
" fatal " — in the General's opinion — to a line of supplies ;
and to have taken it — he asserted — must, under any
conditions, have defeated the end in view.^^ When Mr.
Lincoln said to Major Zagonyi : —
" General Fremont ought to have informed me of his
plans, and of the reasons why he could not obey my
orders " ; he was answered : —
"Mr. President, I am instructed by General Fremont
to say that he could not spare any of his officers, nor trust
the telegraph ; and, furthermore, to say that all the intel-
ligence of his movements which has been placed in the
office of the Adjutant-General has reached the enemy soon
afterwards." ^
3i8 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
But — it has been urged — there was still ample time,
even after the detour, to cut off Jackson's worn-out and
bedraggled forces. To which Fremont replies that the
weather was so stormy, the roads so heavy, the men so
weakened by fatigue and want of food, that a whole day
had to be lost in resting them on the march. *^ All these
things might be pleaded in mitigation before a court-
martial. They are as dust in the balance, however, at
the bar of military history, where commanders are judged,
not by the plausibility of the reasons that they assign for
their defeats, but by the victories that they have snatched,
with straitened means, from unpropitious circumstance.
Before this tribunal the Fremont of the Mountain cam-
paign, like the Fremont who warred a hundred days in
Missouri, stands condemned.
After Jackson's escape, the President realized his own
share in the disaster. It was evident that the three divided
commands, which had supported one another so loosely,
should be united, at once, under one general in the field.
This honor might properly have fallen to Fremont, the
ranking officer of the group ; but Lincoln, for obvious
reasons, looked elsewhere. He selected Major-General
John Pope, who had made a good record in the West, to
lead the combined forces. They constituted, for the most
part, the newly organized Army of Virginia. It was
divided, to correspond with the former departments, into
three army corps, under the command, respectively, of
Fremont, Banks, and McDowell.^^ These officers were all
Pope's seniors in the service. Banks and McDowell,
nevertheless, bowed to the President's wishes ; but Fre-
mont, belying the good Mr. Bo wen's " confidence " in his
patriotism, declined — as Mr. Lincoln had surmised he
would — to " accept an inferior position." On receipt of
the order, the General forthwith telegraphed to the Sec-
retary of War : —
" I respectfully ask that the President will relieva me
of my present command. I submit for his consideration
THE PATHFINDER 319
that the position assigned me by his recent order is sub-
ordinate and inferior to those hitherto conceded me, and
not fairly corresponding with the rank I hold in the army.
I further desire to call his attention to the fact that to
remain in the subordinate command to which I am now
assigned would virtually and largely reduce my rank and
consideration in the service of the country. For these
reasons I earnestly request that the President will not
require the order to take effect so far as I am concerned,
but will consent immediately to relieve me." ^
This missive was a blunder. The ambitious man who
penned it must have lost sight, for the moment, not only
of what he owed to his country, but also of what he
owed to himself.*^ He was plainly in the wrong on a ques-
tion that involved no political differences, and that could,
therefore, not so easily be befogged by partisan prejudice.
Fremont had gone the whole length of his tether. There
is no mistaking the hand that pulled him up short, though
it was ostensibly that of Mr. Stanton. The Secretary of
War answered promptly : —
" Your telegram requesting to be relieved from duty
has been received and laid before the President, who
directs me to say that Congress having by special resolu-
tion vested him with authority to assign the chief command
between officers of the same grade as he might consider
best for the service of the country, without regard to pri-
ority of rank, he exercised that authority in respect to the
Army of Virginia, as he has done in other instances, in
the manner which, in his judgment, was required for the
service, and without design to detract from the ' rank and
consideration ' of any general.^ General Pope was the
junior in rank, but of the same grade not only of yourself,
but also of Generals Banks and McDowell, neither of
whom have considered their rank and consideration in the
service of the country as a condition upon which they
would withdraw from that service.
" The President regrets that any officer in the service
320 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
should withdraw from the service of his country, in any
position where he is lawfully assigned by his commander-
in-chief ; but he cannot consistently with his sense of duty
grant your request that an order, made according to his
judgment for the welfare of the nation, should not be re-
quired to take effect, so far as you are concerned. The
obligation of duty is the same upon all officers in the ser-
vice, whatever their rank, and if there be any difference,
it should be most readily observed by those of highest
rank. Your request, therefore, to be relieved from your
present command is granted.
" You will turn over your command and orders to the
officer next highest in rank to yourself, and direct him to
report to the department for further orders." ^^
A general's popularity must be deep-rooted indeed to
survive such a blast.
Notwithstanding his misconduct and his failures, many
of the Radicals clung to Fremont. He was still their
champion — political and militant, the leader on whom
they depended for the ultimate triumph of Abolition. They
applauded him accordingly, without reservation, but their
faith in his soldierly qualities, be it said, was no longer
shared by the President. " I thought well of Fremont," he
remarked, chatting confidentially one evening with a few
friends. " Even now I think well of his impulses. I only
think he is the prey of wicked and designing men, and I
think he has absolutely no military capacity." ^^ This
opinion, though expressed more than a year after the
Shenandoah campaign, was probably held by Mr. Lincoln
at the conclusion of that fiasco ; yet we fail to find among
his open utterances a word that might hurt the General's
sensitive pride or impair his reputation. Meanwhile Fre-
mont's supporters left no stone unturned in their efforts
to secure his restoration. From the East, as well as from
the West, came delegations, petitions, letters, telegrams,
and what not, urging that he be sent to the field at the
head of another army, or be assigned to some responsible
THE PATHFINDER 321
executive post under the administration. For a time, Mr.
Lincoln readily disposed of these appeals. When, for in-
stance, Congressman George W. Julian of Indiana, in the
spring of 1863, expressed his regret that Fremont had
not received another command,^^ the President replied
that as he did not know where to place the General, he
was reminded of the young man who, when advised by
his father to take a wife, answered, "Whose wife shall I
take?" Mr. Lincoln proceeded to explain that a suitable
appointment could be provided for Fremont only by re-
moving some other general, which he did not wish to do.
" I remarked," reports Mr. Julian, " that I was very
sorry if this was true, and that it was unfortunate for our
cause, as I believed his restoration to duty would stir the
country as no other appointment could."
The President might have become reminiscent as to the
General's stirring powers, but he contented himself with
saying : —
" It would stir the country on one side, and stir it
the other way, on the other. It would please Fremont's
friends, and displease the Conservatives ; and that is all
I can see in the stirring argument." ^*
Mr. Lincoln replied after a similar fashion, some weeks
later, when a St. Louis mass meeting " resolved " that
Fremont and several other anti-slavery generals had been
" systematically kept out of command." To the committee
which presented these resolutions the President senten-
tiously said that there were " more pegs than holes to put
them in." The officers mentioned had, he added, placed
themselves by their own actions in the positions they then
occupied, and however willing he might be to send them
to the field, it could not be done without working injustice
to those whom they would displace.^ This was unan-
swerable. It seemed as if, by a neat application of the
physical law that inhibits two bodies from occupying the
same space at the same time, Lincoln had effectually
shelved Fremont or, more accurately speaking, fastened
322 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
him to the shelf upon which the General had placed him-
self.
Still the extreme anti-slavery men were far from content
to leave their idol in retirement. If there was no suitable
post for Fremont, why — they queried — not create one ?
So said Horace Greeley, William CuUen Bryant, Parke
Godwin, Peter Cooper, and other prominent citizens, who
signed a memorial suggesting that the General should be
commissioned to organize and command an army of negro
troops. The delegation that carried the petition to the
President was introduced by Senator Charles Sumner, to
whom Lincoln, after the interviews, addressed his answer.
This letter evinces how the President's good-will toward
Fremont, no less than his desire to conciliate the General's
powerful friends, brought him to the inconsistency of again
contemplating the appointment of that officer to a military
command. It reads, in part : —
" In relation to the matter spoken of Saturday morning
and this morning — to wit, the raising of colored troops
in the North, with the understanding that they shall be
commanded by General Fremont — I have to say : —
" That while it is very objectionable, as a general rule,
to have troops raised on any special terms, such as to serve
only under a particular commander or only at a particular
place or places, yet I would forego the objection in this
case upon a fair prospect that a large force of this sort
could thereby be the more rapidly raised ;
" That being raised, say to the number of ten thousand,
I would very cheerfully send them to the field under
General Fremont, assigning him a department, made or
to be made, with such white force also as I might be able
to put in." ^^
Nothing came of this, however, for the enlistment of
negro troops was entrusted, in good time, to safer men
than the " Pathfinder."
Another notable attempt to get Fremont back into
active service brought Wendell Phillips, the Rev. Mon-
THE PATHFINDER 323
cure D. Conway, F. W. Bird, Dr. Howe, and others to
Washington. Calling on the President, they requested him
to remove Edward Stanley from the military governor-
ship of North Carolina, on the ground that he was not
acting in sympathy with the then recently issued procla-
mation of emancipation. Mr. Lincoln asked the delega-
tion who was wanted in Stanley's place. They promptly
answered, " Fremont."
" Gentlemen," said the President, " it is generally the
case that a man who begins a work is not the best man to
carry it on to a successful termination. I believe it was
so in the case of Moses — was n't it ? — who got the chil-
dren of Israel out of Egypt, but the Lord selected some-
body else to bring them to their journey's end. A pioneer
has hard work to do, and generally gets so battered and
spattered that people prefer another man, though they
may accept the principle. Don't understand me as having,
myself, the least objection to Mr. Fremont ; but he is so
associated with Abolitionism that many people object to
the man, even though they go his way." ^^
Stanley's office, like the other coveted places, did not
fall to Fremont; and his disappointed adherents grum-
bled more than ever. At last, applying Lincoln's biblical
citation to the President himself, they diligently spread
the opinion that he ought to give way, on the completion
of his first term, to some other leader. Who that leader
should be had become a fixed idea in the Radical mind.
By the spring of 1864, Union opposition to Lincoln's
renomination centered chiefly around Fremont. He suc-
ceeded to what remained of the following which Secretary
Chase, as we have seen, had wisely resigned. In fact, no
sooner had the Ohio man actually withdrawn his candi-
dature than the " Pathfinder's " little lightning-rod was
pushed up into the presidential heavens. Fremont's name
became a rallying-cry for such of the Radicals as were
out of patience with the President's cautious attitude
toward slavery ; for such of the Conservatives as believed.
324 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
or pretended to believe, that Lincoln's reelection would
be a menace to Republican institutions ; and for such
political and private malcontents, generally, as bad been
unavoidably created by the exigencies of a war adminis-
tration. These discontented elements now drew together.
With a view to influencing the regular Republican Con-
vention ^^ that was to meet at Baltimore on the 7th of
June, they assembled on May 31, in Cleveland, for what
they called a " Mass Convention." This body by acclama-
tion nominated General Fremont for the presidency, and
General John Cochrane of New York — a few dissenting
— for the vice-presidency.
The candidates hastened to issue their letters of accept-
ance, which appeared three days before the Baltimore
Convention. What Fremont wrote seemed tinged with
the yellow of his grudge against Lincoln. The President
was here accused of creating a schism in the party by not
remaining " faithful to the principles he was elected to
defend." His administration was severely arraigned for
its " disregard of constitutional rights," for " its violation
of personal liberty and the liberty of the press," its
" abandonment of the right of asylum," its " feebleness,"
" want of principle," " incapacity, and selfishness." All of
which led up smoothly enough to the General's ultima-
tum : —
" If the Convention at Baltimore will nominate any
man whose past life justifies a well-grounded confidence
in his fidelity to our cardinal principles, there is no reason
why there should be any division among the really patri-
otic men of the country. To any such I shall be most
happy to give a cordial and active support. My own
decided preference is to aid in this way, and not to be
myself a candidate. But if Mr. Lincoln should be nomi-
nated, — as I believe it would be fatal to the country to
indorse a policy and renew a power which has cost us the
lives of thousands of men, and needlessly put the country
on the road to bankruptcy, — there will remain no other
THE PATHFINDER 325
alternative but to organize against him every element
of conscientious opposition with the view to prevent the
misfortune of his reelection." ^^
This shaft fell wide of the mark. So far as its effect
upon the Baltimore Convention was concerned, it might
as well never have been discharged. For that body re-
nominated Abraham Lincoln by a unanimous vote, on
the first ballot.
If the President felt aggrieved at Fremont's behavior,
he made no visible sign. Yet the rancor of the General's
attacks upon him and upon his administration was in
striking contrast to the consideration with which the
" Pathfinder " had uniformly been treated. Indeed, at
this, the very climax of Fremont's opposition, Lincoln's
sole recorded comment was a jest. It related to the Cleve-
land "Mass Convention," — "mass" in name only, of
which William Lloyd Garrison, arch-Radical though he
had been, said in the Liberator^ " There never was a more
abortive or a more ludicrous gathering held, politically
speaking." Very few representative people attended ; and
the assembly, instead of numbering thousands as appears
to have been expected, consisted, at no time, of more than
four hundred men. When this disparity was mentioned
by Congressman Deming, in a chat with the President,
the number caught Mr. Lincoln's attention. Putting on
his spectacles, he opened the bible on his desk, turned,
after a moment's search, to the twenty-second chapter of
the First Book of Samuel, and read in a waggish tone : —
"And every one that was in distress, and every one
that was in debt, and every one that was discontented,
gathered themselves unto him ; and he became a captain
over them : and there were with him about four hundred
men.''^"
Auspicious as the President's comparison may, from
the historical point of view, have been for Fremont, that
leader, unlike the chieftain in the Cave of Adullam, did
not become a ruler in Israel. Those who might have
20.6 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
encouraged the General to " set up for himself," as Mrs.
Fremont appears to have expressed it in 1861, understood
him, and Lincoln too, somewhat better in 1864. Even
the " Pathfinder's " old friends the Abolitionists refused
— with certain notable exceptions — to follow him on this
last and stoniest of his trails. They realized, as soon as
the Democrats put forth their candidate and their plat-
form, that emancipation would triumph, if at all, through
Abraham Lincoln. Reluctantly, in some instances half-
mutinously, his opponents within the party came to the
support of the great statesman whose course they had
condemned ; but whose hold on " the plain people," and
whose perfect mastery of the situation, had made him the
indispensable man of the hour. As for Fremont, he found
himself, before the canvass had rightly begun, that most
humiliating of political spectacles — a nominee without a
party. Nothing that he contrived could impart serious-
ness or dignity to his situation. When the issues between
Lincoln and McClellan were sharply defined, moreover,
his position of antagonism to the President became, for a
loyal Republican leader, clearly untenable. So, early in
the autumn, Fremont withdrew from the canvass.®^ Even
this step, however, was taken with bad grace. For he was
careful to explain that he retired " not to aid in the
triumph of Mr. Lincoln," but to do his part " towards
preventing the election of the Democratic candidate." As
an illustration, perhaps, of how he would perform this
extraordinary feat, the writer went on to say : —
" In respect to Mr. Lincoln, I continue to hold exactly
the sentiments contained in my letter of acceptance. I
consider that his administration has been politically,
militarily, and financially a failure, and that its necessary
continuance is a cause of regret for the country." ^^
With this last futile stroke at the man who had so com-
pletely routed him, Fremont disappears from the stage of
national politics, disappointed alike in his ambition and
his spite.
CHAPTER VIII
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON
The dead level of disappointment which marked the
opening operations of the Civil War, on the northern side,
was relieved by one brief and comparatively brilliant cam-
paign. This took place in upper western Virginia, where
Federal troops drove less than their number of Confed-
erates before them in a succession of engagements. Phi-
lippi. Laurel Hill, Rich Mountain, and Carrick's Ford
were, it is true, mere skirmishes when viewed beside the
great battles of the war that followed ; but in the summer
of 1861 they were hailed throughout the North as impor-
tant victories. To judge by results, they were not so insig-
nificant, either, as at first glance now seems to be the case.
For that decisive little campaign shattered a Confederate
army, rescued what before long became the State of West
Virginia from secession, infused renewed courage into
northern hearts, and formally introduced to Union men
their first military idol — George Brinton McClellan, As
Major-General in command of the Department of the
Ohio,* that officer had won some of these successes, and
had received credit for them all. Their moral effect on the
country, be it said, was heightened not a little, at the time,
by the trumpet-like tones of his proclamations, addresses,
and despatches, which followed one another, during the
campaign, in rapid succession.^ Bulletins fell as thick as
bullets. The General carried a portable printing-press,
which worked overtime ; and its output was disfigured by
a vein of exaggeration, amounting occasionally — as we
now perceive — to bombast. Amidst the jubilation aroused
by his joyful tidings, however, and in the confusion of the
328 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
gathering conflict, these productions were received at their
face value. Even Lieutenant-General Scott, the venerable
chief of the army, did not scrutinize them too closely. This
sudden triumph of an officer who had once been numbered
among the veteran's most promising subalterns so moved
the old campaigner that he added his praise, without re-
serve, to the general acclaim. McClellan was easily the
hero of the hour. His vigor of rhetoric, combined, as it
seemed, with a genius for tactics, recalled to men's minds
the conqueror of Austerlitz. Reversing history, in their
enthusiasm, they fondly styled him the " Young Napoleon,"
though he was considerably older than Bonaparte had been
at the close of his first campaign ; ^ and in that same spirit
they turned, as by one accord, toward the new prodigy,
with high hopes of great achievements to come.
The North was still rejoicing over McClellan's victories,
the thanks of Congress and the congratulations of the
administration were still making the rounds of an applaud-
ing press, when the Union army under McDowell came to
grief at the first battle of Bull Run. As the routed volun-
teers poured into Washington, in a state of almost total
demoralization, their first need was evidently a new com-
mander ; and to provide one was President Lincoln's first
care. His choice naturally fell upon the popular favorite,
the only general officer who had, since the war opened,
gained any distinction. It seemed to Mr. Lincoln, no less
than to the country at large, that this picturesque soldier
was destined to repair the disaster of July 21, and to
lead the reorganized troops to victory. So McClellan re-
ceived a hurried summons to the Capital. Upon his arrival
he was assigned to the command of the newly created
Division of the Potomac, by far the most responsible post
in the field.^
This promotion, dazzling as it must have been even to
the man so honored himself, did not rest upon those few
successful weeks in western Virginia, alone. Some credit,
however slight, should doubtless be conceded to his earlier
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 329
history and training. A graduate of West Point shortly
after the outbreak of the Mexican War, McClellan had
seen active service before his twentieth birthday.^ He had
distinguished himself repeatedly, though only a second
lieutenant of engineers, in General Scott's campaign ; and
that commander's attention was, on several occasions,
called to the youthful officer's exploits. At the close of the
Mexican War, Captain McClellan — he was so brevetted
for gallantry — had entered upon eight busy years of
varied official duties. Serving with his engineer company
as an instructor at West Point, assisting Major John
Sanders in construction work at Fort Delaware, exploring
the country of the Upper Red River under Captain Ran-
dolph B. Marcy, making a military inspection of Texas
as chief engineer on the staff of General P. F. Smith, sur-
veying the coast of that State for the improvement of its
harbors, exploring the Cascade Mountains to determine
part of the proposed route for the Pacific Railroad, recon-
noitering the West Indies in a secret search for a coaling
station, and visiting Europe during the Crimean War as
one of the three commissioners appointed to make military
observations abroad, — he had won, in whatever task was
assigned to him, golden opinions from his superiors. He
had found time, moreover, during this period, busy as
it was, to employ his pen with good effect. A general me-
moir on the island of Hayti, a monograph on railroad con-
struction. Regulations for the Field Service of Cavalry
in Time of War, a Manual of Bayonet Exercise which
upon General Scott's urgent recommendation was adopted
by the War Department as an official text-book, and a
voluminous treatise on The Armies of Europe, besides a
number of minor reports, all bear testimony to his ability
no less than to his zeal.^ But in times of peace army life
usually fails to fill the measure of such a man's ambition.
Resigning his commission in 1857,^ Captain McClellan
had become successively Chief Engineer of the Illinois
Central Railroad Company, Vice-President of the same
330 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
corporation, and President of the Eastern Division of
the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, with headquarters at
Cincinnati. Hence, when the Civil War began, Ohio
rather than New York or Pennsylvania — for his services
were sought by both the latter commonwealths — had
secured the honor of McClellan's enrollment. Promptly
finding emj)loyment in military preparations at Colum-
bus, he had been appointed by Governor Dennison Major-
General of State Volunteers.® At the head of the local
forces, he had straightway impressed those about him with
a confidence in his skill that as speedily found its way to
the National Capital. For, presto ! in just three weeks,
this militia ofiicer had been commissioned — remarkable
to relate — a Major-General of the United States Army.^
In that capacity, he had presently conducted the campaign
into western Virginia which made his name a household
word all over the Union ; and directly afterward, a symbol
of security in Washington, when he reached there, during
the week of Bull Run.
McClellan and Lincoln were not, at the time, strangers
to each other. They had met before the war in the con-
duct of certain lawsuits, which concerned the one as an
ofiicer of the Illinois Central Railroad Company and the
other as its counsel. On these occasions, the then unpol-
ished lawyer had been an object of interest to the well-
bred West Pointer, who many years later thus touched
upon his early acquaintance with Mr. Lincoln : —
" More than once I have been with him in out-of-the-
way county-seats where some important case was being
tried, and, in the lack of sleeping accommodations, have
spent the night in front of a stove listening to the unceas-
ing flow of anecdotes from his lips. He was never at a
loss, and I could never quite make up my mind how many
of them he had really heard before, and how many he
invented on the spur of the moment. His stories were
seldom refined, but were always to the point." ^'^
If memories of those Attic nights on the Eighth Judi-
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 331
cial Circuit arose in the minds of the two men as General
McClelhm presented himself to President Lincoln at the
White House, on the morning of July 27, 1861, there
might also have been recollections not quite so agreeable.
When Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas had
made their memorable canvass for the senatorship three
years before, one of the " Little Giant's " most ardent
supporters was George B. McClellan. As Vice-President
of a railroad company which, for reasons of its own,
favored Douglas, he had employed in the Senator's behalf
all the influence and facilities at his command. Special
trains — on occasion even McClellan's private car — had
carried the Democratic champion to the scenes of the
debates, while his opponent, in order to keep these ap-
pointments, had been reduced at times, as we have seen,
to the necessity of begging rides on freight trains. This
discrimination, though it had greatly angered Lincoln's
friends, evoked, so far as we know, not a complaint from
the man against whom it was directed. Nor does the
closest scrutiny into his conduct reveal a trace of resent-
ment. He had never, in all the ruck of frontier politics,
learned how to nurse personal grievances. It goes without
saying, therefore, that in the loftier sphere of the presi-
dency his heart, big as it was, had no room for a private
grudge. If any misgivings on this score troubled General
McClellan when he made his first bow in Wasliington,
they were speedily dispelled by Mr. Lincoln's cordial
greeting. Neither mistrust for the past nor doubt of the
future was allowed to mar the harmony of their meeting.
The new commander glowed with the warmth of his re-
ception. Touched by the President's kindness, he eagerly
accepted the great dual task assigned to him of defending
the Union Capital and taking Richmond.
McClellan seemed at first glance equal to the emer-
gency. He entered upon the arduous labors of recon-
structing, indeed of creating, an army with the prime
requisite, bodily vigor. A muscular frame, deep-chested.
332 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
broad-shouldered, full-throated, rendered him capable of
physical exertions so long sustained that they aroused
the admiration of those who had to keep up with him in
a trying round of duties. His bearing, as he rode about
Washington from post to post, was alert and soldierly.
Though but slightly above medium height, length of body
made him look tall in the saddle, while a good seat and a
steady hand completed the impression of superb horse-
manship. His every movement betokened dignity, every
command perfect self-reliance. When with these exter-
nals are recalled the well-set, closely-cropped head, martial
mustache, bronzed complexion, aquiline nose, and com-
pelling blue eyes, we comprehend why many who saw him
at the time pronounced him to be the beau-ideal of a mili-
tary chieftain. His appearance, it may be said, gave
promise of more than his talents were destined to fulfil,
yet McClellan's powers were of no common order. A
study of modern warfare in all its aspects, supplemented
by a broad general scholarship, had admirably prepared
him in the theory of military organization. Hardly less
notable seemed the skill with which this knowledge was
now employed. Indeed, McClellan's tireless energy, mas-
tery of details, comprehensive discipline, and administra-
tive grasp of what was needed to place the country on
a war footing justified more nearly than in any other
respects a comparison to the great Napoleon. Immeasur-
ably inferior, withal, to the Corsican in military ability,
as we shall see, the American surpassed him in charac-
ter. McClellan was a man of good impulses, for the most
part, in fact, of high ideals. The romantic — more pre-
cisely speaking, the sentimental — view of life appealed to
his imagination. He plunged into a duty, as he saw it,
with all the fervor of an emotional nature. That he did
not always see clearly at critical moments must be con-
ceded. Nevertheless, his integrity, courage, and fidelity to
a trust, private or official, were in the main as deep-rooted
as the religious feeling from which they sprung. A man
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 333
of prayers, like so many who have led in the world's
bitterest conflicts, he was, to a remarkable degree for a
professional soldier, pure in thought and word and deed.
Some fellow officer might fitly have applied to him, with
perhaps a slight modification, that eulogy addressed by a
comrade, full two hundred and fifty years before, to the
first illustrious captain on Virginian soil : —
"I never knew a warrior yet, but thee,
From wine, tobacco, debts, dice, oaths, so free."
This resemblance to John Smith may be traced still
further in McClellan's charm of manner. Richly endowed
with the social virtues, he was so cordial, frank, and sym-
pathetic, so courteous in demeanor, so buoyant of speech,
that men were insensibly drawn toward him, even on first
acquaintance. Not a few, after closer intercourse, came
to hold him in affectionate regard ; while the favored
ones whom he admitted to his friendship repaid it with
signal love and loyalty. This power to inspire devotion,
this personal magnetism, is an important, if not an essential
element of successful leadership. Measured according to
that attribute alone, the first commander of the Army of
the Potomac would easily have ranked as its greatest.
But McClellan fell short of heroic proportions. To
what extent, the campaigns upon which he eventually
entered all too clearly disclosed. In fact, before opera-
tions began, certain defects of temperament that con-
tributed not a little to his failures showed themselves
through the pomp and circumstance of military grandeur.
The pace, as is usual in revolutionary times, was rapid —
far too rapid for McClellan's equipoise. His sudden bound
into fame had, as early as the west Virginian days, dis-
turbed that nicety of balance, lacking which, no man can
long- maintain suitable relations with the rest of the world.
We find him, then, already nursing an inordinate respect
for his own importance, that grew by the flattery and hero-
worship on which it was fed, until it had swelled, at the
commencement of his Washington career, to a condition
334 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
bordering upon exaltation. He believed himself " called '*
to a sacred mission. No " man of destiny " ever approached
an allotted task in a prof ounder spirit of consecration. To
McClellan's stimulated imagination it seemed as if Pro-
vidence had fashioned him throughout his earlier life
into an instrument of the divine will for the preservation
of his country ; and this notion unfortunately received
apparent confirmation from the manner of his reception
at the Capital. Our Camillus had been on duty there
just one day, when he wrote to his wife : —
" I find myself in a new and strange position here —
President, cabinet, General Scott, and all, deferring to me.
By some strange operation of magic I seem to have become
the power of the land." ^^
Another branch of the government paid its tribute,
three days later, to the rising sun. Visiting the Senate, for
the purpose of urging some special military legislation,
McClellan " was quite overwhelmed," as he expressed it,
at his treatment by the members. " I suppose," reads a
message to the same fair correspondent, " half a dozen of
the oldest made the remark I am becoming so much used
to, ' Why, how young you look, and yet an old soldier ! '
It seems to strike everybody that I am very young. They
give me my way in everything, full swing and unbounded
confidence. All tell me that I am held responsible for the
fate of the nation, and that all its resources shall be placed
at my disposal. It is an immense task that I have on my
hands, but I believe I can accomplish it. . . . When I
was in the Senate chamber to-day, and found those old
men flocking around me ; when I afterwards stood in the
library, looking over the capitol of our great nation, and
saw the crowd gathering around to stare at me, I began
to feel how great the task committed to me. Oh ! how
sincerely I pray to God that I may be endowed with the
wisdom and courage necessary to accomplish the work.
Who would have thought, when we were married, that I
should so soon be called upon to save my country ? " ^
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 33s
These are but specimens of the ebullitions in which the
General's earlier private letters to his wife abounded. A
dip, at random, into almost any of them, — for they have,
since his death, been rather injudiciously published, —
reveals at once the egotism of the writer, and the well-
nigh unprecedented good-will lavished upon him at the
start, by eminent public men. What wonder if the new
wine of their adulation mounted to McClellan's head !
He had not been in Washington long before the fixed
idea that God had placed him there to save his country
became tinged with the fatal delusion that it could be
saved by him alone.
Here was a saviour of no common mold. Beside him
all those other tutelary personages who surrounded the
President seem to fade into insignificance. McClellan's
own confidence in his star, to say nothing of the popular
belief that he was about to do great things, had been
frankly adopted by Mr. Lincoln himself. He petted the
General in his simple, abnegating way, and did his best
to satisfy that officer's innumerable demands upon the
government. McClellan's engaging personality, more-
over, was not without its wonted effect, for it stirred the
great heart in the White House to a feeling of friendliness
quite apart from mere official support. We have seen
something of the President's amiable indulgence toward
the statesmen who severally fancied that their names
spelled the country's salvation ; but none of them, it is
safe to say, were treated with such consideration as was
shown, in the beginning, at least, to the " Young Napo-
leon." McClellan's pretensions met with the utmost good
humor. Flowers and invitations to dinner and kind words
poured in upon him from the Executive Mansion, until
even he, a very glutton for honor, turned aside to cry,
" Enough ! " "I enclose," reads one of those private let-
ters to his wife, " a card just received from ' A. Lincoln ' ,•
it shows too much deference to be seen outside." ^^ This
complaisance hardly raised " A. Lincoln " in the eyes of
336 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
his punctilious subordinate. To McClellan's straitened
vision, the President differed but little from the country-
attorney, who had made entertainment on the western
circuit, with stories that " were seldom refined." The
homely manners, unconventional methods, and whimsical
moods which misled, as we have seen, so many politicians
naturally carried this soldier of aristocratic tendencies,
far afield. He failed more grievously, perhaps, than any
of them to comprehend the extraordinary man with whom
they were dealing. The nearest that he could bring him-
self to expressing anything like appreciation was contained
in a patronizing comment, — " The President is honest and
means well." ^* He might have said, with equal grace, —
" The President is a worthy dunce." For, to sum it all
up, conformably with McClellan's academic standards, —
and he knew no other, — Lincoln seemed to fall as far
below the requirements of the situation as the General
fancied himself to rise above them.
An officer who has fallen into such a frame of mind
will not submit patiently to the supervision even of his
commander-in-chief. So the President's natural interest
in military matters, as the work of organization went
on, greatly annoyed McClellan. It soon began to look as
if the " full swing and unbounded confidence," in which
he had exulted, might have its limitations after all. He
chafed under Mr. Lincoln's questions, and had but a cold
welcome for his suggestions. Nor was this the only source
of irritation. Day by day the General's resentment of
what he called " meddling" took a wider compass, until
finally, not the Chief Executive alone, but the Lieutenant-
General, most of the cabinet officers, and other public
men, as well, appear to have fallen within the spreading
circle of his displeasure. That something of this feeling
should find expression in McClellan's private correspond-
ence was to be expected. We are unprepared, however,
for the spleen which has left its unseemly tracks among
these posthumous revelations of the man's vanity.
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 337
" I am weary of all this," reads a letter to his wife,
after the third week at the Capital. " I have no ambition
in the present affairs ; only wish to save my country, and
find the incapables around me will not permit it." ^^
Who these incapables were may be inferred from other
outbursts that followed. The first splutter of McClellan's
rage was directed, in part at least, against his venerable
patron and conmiander. General Scott, concerning whom
the younger officer confided many complaints to the lady
at home. Early in August he wrote : —
" The old General always comes in the way. He under-
stands nothing, appreciates nothing."
On the following day he added, in the same strain : —
" General Scott is the great obstacle. He will not
comprehend the danger. I have to fight my way against
him."
A few days more brought an ultimatum in sight : —
" General Scott is the most dangerous antagonist I
have. Our ideas are so widely different that it is impos-
sible for us to work together much longer."
Then there was something very like a panic, with honors
for the responsibility about evenly divided : —
" I am here in a terrible place. The enemy have from
three to four times my force. The President, the old Gen-
eral, cannot or will not see the true state of affairs."
And so on, to the end of the chapter, when Scott's re-
tirement made way for the last coveted promotion of his
ambitious junior.
Painful as are these manifestations of McClellan's acer-
bity toward an illustrious chief, they do not quite move
us to the sense of outrage with which we come upon his
privately expressed ill-will — at times, even contempt —
for Abraham Lincoln and the statesmen by whom the
President was supported.
" I can't tell you," wrote the General at the beginning
of October, " how disgusted I am becoming with these
wretched politicians." "
338 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Yet straightway he proceeded, in letter after letter,
to enlighten his sympathetic correspondent on that very
subject. A few extracts must suffice here.
" This getting ready," reads one lament, " is slow work
with such an administration. I wish I were well out of it."
Then makes he moan after the following fashion : —
" I am becoming daily more disgusted with this ad-
ministration — perfectly sick of it. If I could with honor
resign, I would quit the whole concern to-morrow."
He does not quit, however, but remains for martyr-
dom:—
" I was obliged to attend a meeting of the cabinet at
eight P. M., and was bored and annoyed. There are some
of the greatest geese in the cabinet I have ever seen —
enough to tax the patience of Job."
Not long thereafter he strikes a harsher note : —
" I have a set of men to deal with unscrupulous and
false. . . . The people think me all-powerful. Never was
there a greater mistake. I am thwarted and deceived by
these incapables at every turn."
Meanwhile, like an alert tactician, McClellan countered
with a little thwarting and deceiving of his own. For the
same letter tells how he concealed himself in order " to
dodge all enemies in shape of ' browsing ' Presidents, etc."
This happened during November, by which time his
scorn for the administration knew no bounds. "It is
sickening in the extreme," he wrote, " and makes me feel
heavy at heart, when I see the weakness and unfitness of
the poor beings who control the destinies of this great
country."
But enough of such vaporings, for the present. Happily,
" the poor beings " who controlled were unaware how low
they stood in their accomplished critic's private books,
though he furnished the prime offender with grounds for
more than a conjecture.
Mr. Lincoln had made it a practice, from the begin-
ning, to pay informal visits at McClellan's headquarters.
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 339
Waiving, with characteristic self-surrender, all questions
of etiquette, he hoped thus to keep in touch with military
affairs at the least possible expenditure of the General's
time. Before breakfast or after supper, as the case might
be, the President would arrive with some such greeting
as, "Is George in?" And it became a matter of com-
ment that, if George was in, he did not always receive his
distinguished caller promptly. Seemingly unconscious of
any discourtesy, Mr. Lincoln waited with unruffled good
humor, in McClellan's reception-room, among the " other
common mortals," as one indignant chronicler expressed
it, until the oracle was pleased to have him admitted.*'
More vehement still must have been the rag^e of a White
House clerk, who tells how he accompanied his Chief,
one evening, to the headquarters in H Street. " We are
seated," he writes, " and the President's arrival has been
duly announced, but time is being given him to think over
what he came for. General McClellan is probably very
busy over some important detail of his vast duties, and
he cannot tear himself away from it at once. A minute
passes, and then another, and then another, and with
every tick of the clock upon the mantel your blood warms
nearer and nearer its boiling-point. Your face feels hot
and your fingers tingle, as you look at the man, sitting so
patiently over there, whom you regard as the Titan and
hero of the hour ; and you try to master your rebellious
consciousness that he is kept waiting, like an applicant in
an ante-room." *^ On another occasion. Secretary Seward
had the honor of sharing a snub with the President. Call-
ing together at headquarters, one evening, they were told
that the General was out, but would soon return. After
they had waited in the reception-room almost an hour,
McClellan came back. Disregarding the orderly who had
told him about his visitors, he went directly upstairs.
Whereupon Mr. Lincoln, thinking that perhaps he had
not been announced, sent up his name ; but the messenger
returned with the information that the General had gone
340 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
to bed. It is doubtful whether the President ever required
or received an explanation of this gross misbehavior.^^
There was no appreciable change in his friendly attitude
toward McClellan, but thenceforth most of their consulta-
tions took place at the White House. What happened
concerning an appointment for one of these meetings
nicely illustrates how Lincoln, at the time, regarded his
inflated subordinate. The President had arranged a con-
ference, to be held in the Executive Mansion, between
General Ormsby M. Mitchel, Governor Dennison, and
General McClellan. All but the last-named gentleman
kept the engagement. After Mitchel and Dennison had,
with perhaps some show of irritation, waited a long time,
Mr. Lincoln said : —
" Never mind ; I will hold McClellan's horse, if he will
only bring us success." ^°
Meanwhile the President's forbearance was subjected to
a still severer strain. As time advanced, it appeared to him,
and indeed to a considerable portion of the loyal North,
that the Army of the Potomac lingered longer than neces-
sary in the camps about Washington. This splendid force
had been due to an outpouring of men and means lavish
beyond parallel. With unlimited confidence in McClellan,
the people, as well as the administration, had determined
that nothing should be lacking to his success. By com-
mon consent, moreover, it had been agreed that he should
not be hurried ; for Bull Run had sobered the nation, and
the cry of " On to Richmond ! " had, temporarily at least,
fallen into disfavor. Relying besides upon the General's
promise, when he assumed command, that the war should
be "short, sharp, and decisive," the public watched in
patience, through the late summer and early fall, while
the army took shape under his skilful hands. Organiza-
tion was then the order of the day. But there came a
time, after months of elaborate preparations and imposing
reviews, when the country began to grow restless again.
On all sides arose demands for an advance of the army ;
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 341
yet comparatively few of those who found fault with its
inaction during October blamed McClellan. Professing
himself eager to open the campaign, he charged his delays
now to the government, now to the aged General-in-Chief,
until, at last, one of these alleged obstacles was removed.
Scott, bending beneath the weight of his infirmities, and
smarting under the junior officer's repeated discourtesies,
had, in August, asked to be retired.^^ This request was
finally granted on the 1st of November, but not before
McClellan, by representing that the Lieutenant-General
stood in the way of a forward movement, had secured
the intervention of Senators Wade, Chandler, and Triun-
buU. Their belief in the younger General's ardor was
then still shared by Mr. Lincoln, as indeed by the nation
at large. So, when the President appointed McClellan
to the command of the whole army in Scott's place, his
act met with general approval ; "^ yet the eager patriots,
who looked for an advance as soon as the new General-
in-Chief got a free hand, were doomed to disappointment.
Drills and parades and the work of getting ready went
on as before. The beautiful autumn weather invited
McClellan into Virginia, without response ; while his vast
host remained coiled around the Capital, like an overfed
serpent, about to take its winter sleep.
Why did not the Army of the Potomac advance ?
Disciplined and equipped by perhaps the ablest military
organizer on American soil, it excelled the force con-
fronting it in resources, health, and efficiency. So formid-
able an array had never before been seen in the Western
World. With fine enthusiasm, the troops chafed while
awaiting the order to march. They longed to break camp
for the enemy's country, and their many weeks of labor
on a formidable chain of earthworks had gone far enough
for them to feel that they would leave Washington a forti-
fied city. When it is added that the Federals at this point
outnumbered the Confederates by more than three to one,
we may well ask the reason for further delay. A satisfac-
342 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
tory explanation must be sought far below the surface of
things, — in the purpose and disposition of the General
commanding. His aim, as he expressed it at the very out-
set, was to carry matters " en grand and crush the rebels
in one campaign." If this might be accomplished by a
single decisive battle, so much the more to his liking. For
McClellan evidently aspired to the strategic triumphs of
a Turenne, rather than the bloody progress of a Tamer-
lane or a Bonaparte. He had accordingly set about the
creation of an army which should be so overwhelmingly
superior to that of the enemy as to demonstrate " the utter
impossibility of resistance." ^^ And here rose the rock
upon which this talented officer eventually came to grief.
A weakness for overrating his antagonist's strength and
for underrating his own rendered him incapable of making
a correct comparison. To such an extent was this carried
that he persisted in demanding more men, and time for
further preparations, long after the balance tipped heavily
to his side. There was still room, it is true, for improve-
ment in the Army of the Potomac, — as of what army
might that not at any time be said ? — but war, like poli-
tics, is the science of the attainable, and, all things con-
sidered, the troops were ready to move by December.
About the first of that month the President suggested
an advance against the enemy encamped before Washing-
ton. A memorandum, which he handed to McClellan,
asked a few pertinent questions about the situation, and
outlined a plan of operations. After a delay of perhaps
ten days, this paper was returned to Mr. Lincoln with
brief answers inserted, in pencil ; while the plan was dis-
missed somewhat after the same curt fashion. " Informa-
tion recently," wrote the General, " leads me to believe
that the enemy would meet us in front with equal forces
nearly — and I have now my mind actually turned towards
another plan of campaign that I do not think at all an-
ticipated by the enemy, nor by many of our own people." ^
The information referred to was far from accurate. It is
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 343
now known that the Confederates along the Manassas line
numbered, at the time, about 47,000 effective men, whereas
the Federals, according to McClellan's own showing, had
a force of over 164,000 equipped and present for duty.
Deducting 60,000 on garrison or other service, as he
did, still left 104,000 with which to meet 47,000." But
the General, with something akin to infatuation, declared
himself confronted by a force "not less than 150,000
strong, well drilled and equipped, ably commanded, and
strongly intrenched." ^^ To make headway against this
fanciful host, he had insisted, a few weeks before, that
the Army of the Potomac should be increased to an effec-
tive strength of 208,000 men.^^ McClellan's tendency to
exaggerate did not escape Mr. Lincoln, who tried to cor-
rect it, we surmise, in his characteristic way. They were
together one night when the General received a telegram
from an officer commanding a regiment on the Upper
Potomac. The despatch described in magniloquent lan-
guage a desperate conflict that had taken place during the
day, and closed with a list of casualties so small as to be
out of all proportion to the alleged importance of the
struggle. " The President," relates McClellan, " quietly
listened to my reading of the telegram, and then said that
it reminded him of a notorious liar, who attained such a
reputation as an exaggerator that he finally instructed his
servant to stop him, when his tongue was running too
rapidly, by pulling his coat or touching his feet. One day
the master was relating wonders he had seen in Europe,
and described a building which was about a mile long and
a half mile high. Just then the servant's heel came down
on the narrator's toes, and he stopped abruptly. One
of the listeners asked how broad this remarkable build-
ing might be. The narrator modestly replied, ' About a
foot ! ' " 2« That there could be any personal application
in the parable apparently never entered the listener's
mind ; but those who have made themselves familiar with
Lincoln's tactful use of the little stories which this, that,
344 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
and the other thing reminded him of, will find no difficulty
in drawing the moral, though it was lost upon McClellan.
He stood stoutly by his inflated estimates. How erroneous
these were, the President had no means of demonstrating,
nor was he favored with a hint of the new plan for which
his suggestion had been so unceremoniously brushed aside.
He waited for the General to speak, hoping against hope
that the spell of inaction which brooded over the army
might soon be broken. Still the oracle made no sign.
A fatal irresolution appears to have possessed McClel-
lan. He was not willing to take the field until his ideal
of completeness had been attained, nor could he bring
himself to the unpopular course of going into winter quar-
ters. In this latter respect only, the General-in-Chief
recognized the existence of an aroused public opinion,
which he would have done well to take carefully into ac-
count. No commander, worthy of the name, opens a cam-
paign, under ordinary conditions, by cutting himself off
from his base of supplies ; and, in a free country, this
base, whatever may seem to be its place on the theater of
operations, really lies close to the hearts of the people.
Without their continued support, the general cannot hope
to succeed ; for, sooner or later, their wishes compel atten-
tion — even to the point, at times, of becoming a control-
ling factor in his calculations. When McClellan, therefore,
in the arrogance of military pride, refused to give the
popular will that consideration to which it was clearly
entitled, he showed himself lacking, as has well been
said, " in those statesmanlike qualities that enter into the
composition of a great general." ^ His failure, moreover,
to set the army promptly in motion foreshadowed other
deficiencies not less serious.
How urgent grew the need of military action, before the
close of 1861, may be seen at a glance. A body of north-
ern soldiers — the largest ever collected on this continent,
was seemingly held in and around Washington by an
inferior southern force, which, unmolested, had flaunted
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 345
its flag for months in sight of the capitol ; a chance
encounter — the disastrous battle of Ball's Bluff — had
confirmed a belief, among some, in the superior courage
of the besiegers ; railroad communication with the city,
by way of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was inter-
rupted ; and Confederate batteries, on the Virginia side
of the Potomac, effectually closed the river to navigation.
The humiliation, to say nothing of the trouble, produced
by this condition of affairs, was none the less keen because
McClellan, after repeatedly emphasizing the necessity
for vigorous operations, continued merely to mark time.
Within ten days of his arrival at Washington, he had
delivered himself of a " memorandum " to the President,
in which he said : —
" Our foreign relations and financial credit also impera-
tively demand that the military action of the government
should be prompt and irresistible." ^"
No wiser words had, at the time, been uttered. Never-
theless, after four months of exhaustive preliminaries, his
own course — the very reverse of what was prompt or
irresistible — had brought both those important interests
into jeopardy. Europe could not but respect a secession
movement which seemed strong enough to keep the Union
Capital so long in a state of partial siege. For it goes
without saying that such prestige as could be extracted
from the pitiful spectacle was made the most of by south-
ern sympathizers abroad, and the Confederate government
at home. Every day of inaction on the Potomac now
favored the diplomatic hopes of Jefferson Davis, as it aug-
mented among Abraham Lincoln's supporters an ever-pre-
sent fear of foreign intervention.^^ Meanwhile the other
danger forecast by McClellan also made itself manifest.
Actual war had hardly begun, yet the treasury was nearly
empty. With a daily expenditure of almost $2,000,000
and a steadily increasing public debt that threatened to
reach almost fabulous proportions, the government could
not look upon this apparent torpor in the Army of the
P
346 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Potomac with anything but the gravest anxiety. Nor
was the situation improved when the loyal people of the
North, paying war taxes as freely as they had recruited
regiments, clamored in the midst of their sacrifices for
action. From all sides came the pressure upon the admin-
istration, and McClellan himself was now no longer
spared. His hold on the confidence of the nation became
considerably shaken. Criticism took the place of lauda-
tion. Men, recovering from their excess of hero-worship,
began to suspect that "our chicken," in the language of
Lowell's North American Review essay, " was no eagle,
after all." Even the daily bulletin, " All quiet on the
Potomac," — once a welcome message throughout the
land, — became a text for newspaper satire and popular
derision.
Many representatives of the people, when they reached
Washington in December, echoed their constituents' de-
mands for a more spirited prosecution of the war. This
was especially so among the Radical members of the House
and Senate, who, finding bitter fault with McClellan's
tactics, were not less severe upon his politics. A War
Democrat of the conservative type, he hoped to see the
Union restored without the immediate abolition of slavery.
Although his attitude, in this particular, was seemingly
justified by Mr. Lincoln's Border State policy, and by
the declared purpose of Congress not to interfere with
the established institutions of the southern common-
wealths,^ such tenderness as he manifested for the rights
of slave-owners was exceedingly offensive to the most in-
fluential of the Republican leaders. Their hostility toward
McClellan became intensified, moreover, by the fact that
unfriendly critics of the administration appeared to be
his adherents, while even outspoken opponents of the war
championed his cause. Only your true Napoleon could,
by force of great military triumphs, come unharmed out
of such a coil ; but this unfortunate general, lingering
too long in the shadow of the capitol, had become in-
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 347
volved, as we shall see, beyond relief. Idolized at the
outset by Union men of all parties, he found himself pre-
sently the storm center about which beat the fiercest
currents of contending political factions.
Over McClellan, thus beset, the President held the
aegis of his protection. This smart young General had,
it is true, been at no pains to conceal an overweening
contempt for Mr. Lincoln or his civilian advisers ; and
whatever victories he might win would assuredly be
turned into political capital by the administration's Demo-
cratic opponents, who were already getting into a position
to appropriate his laurels. That he could, moreover, be
continued in command only at the risk of alienating
from the government some of its own party chiefs — to
say nothing of a patriotic populace, press, and platform,
clamoring against a so-called Fabian policy — greatly
troubled the President. Yet loyalty, in the last extreme,
to the men about him was one of Lincoln's dominant
traits ; and to support the " Young Napoleon," early in
the winter of 1861-62, was loyalty to the country, as well.
For the President, frankly conceding his own ignorance
of military affairs, knew of no one who was likely to
wield the formidable weapon which McClellan had fash-
ioned, more effectually than the General-in-Chief himself.
To sustain that officer in public, and to defend him in
private against the aspersions of his powerful critics,
became at this time not the least of Lincoln's cares.
When ardent friends of the administration insisted upon
the necessity for immediate action, he replied that Mc-
Clellan was right not to advance before his preparations
were completed. The faultfinding even took the shape
of protests by special committees. One of these dele-
gations consisted of three influential Representatives,
Schuyler Colfax, Reuben E. Fenton, and Galusha A.
Grow, Speaker of the House. They came to point out the
'mportance not only of appeasing popular discontent with
he lagging army, but also of averting a heated discussion
348 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
about its commander, which threatened daily to break out
on the floor of Congress. What they had to say was
hardly news to the President. Yet he received them in
the jocular mood behind which so often lay hidden the
anxiety that gnawed at his heart. It seemed to him, he
said, as if Providence, with favoring sky and earth, beck-
oned the army on ; but that General McClellan, who
knew his business, no doubt had his reasons for disre-
garding these hints. " As we have got to stand by the
General," continued Mr. Lincoln, " I think a good way
to do it may be for Congress to take a recess for several
weeks, and by the time you get together again, if McClel-
lan is not off with the army. Providence is very likely to
step in with hard roads and force us to say, ' the army
can't move.' You know Dickens said of a certain man
that if he would always follow his nose he would never
stick fast in the mud. Well, when the rains set in, it will
be impossible for even our eager and gallant soldiers to
keep their noses so high that their feet will not stick in
the clay mud of old Virginia." ^ To the General himself,
the President used a very different tone. He sought, at
every opportunity, to impress privately upon that officer
how serious the situation had become, and how vital to
the cause which they both held dear was the striking of
a decisive blow.
Military affairs were in this unsatisfactory state at
Christmas time, when McClellan took to his bed, for what
proved to be a period of three weeks, with an attack of
typhoid fever. As he had not conferred adequate authority
upon any one to act for him meanwhile, " his absence,"
to quote a far from unfriendly member of the general
staff, "paralyzed work at headquarters."^ The outlook
for the Army of the Potomac was consequently as gloomy
as ever when Congress reassembled after the holiday
recess. Members no lonsrer restrained themselves from
demanding explanations ; the Joint Committee appointed
to inquire into the conduct of the war ^ held daily ses-
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 349
sions, at which one military expert after another testified
to the readiness of the troops for a campaign ; and pro-
tests against their continued idleness focused upon the
President, from every conceivable direction, with a heat
that became almost intolerable. Matters had evidently
reached a crisis. Having failed in several attempts to
consult with the sick man, Mr. Lincoln, on January 10,
summoned two division commanders, Generals Irvin Mc-
Dowell and William B. Franklin. To them the harassed
chief unburdened himself. " The President," as McDowell
relates, " said he was in great distress, and, as he had
been to General McClellan's house, and the General did
not ask to see him, and as he must talk to somebody, he
had sent for General Franklin and myself, to obtain our
opinion as to the possibility of soon commencing active
operations with the Army of the Potomac. To use his own
expression, if something was not soon done, the bottom
would be out of the whole affair ; and, if General Mc-
Clellan did not want to use the army, he would like to
' borrow it,' provided he could see how it could be made
to do something."^ Then followed a series of conferences
with Mr. Lincoln, in which, at one time or another. Sec-
retaries 'Seward and Chase, Postmaster-General Blair,
Assistant Secretary of War Scott,^^ Quartermaster-Gen-
eral Meigs, and the two officers mentioned, took part.
Their advice — excepting that of Judge Blair, McClellan's
stanch supporter — was in favor of moving, within a short
time, as the President had suggested six weeks before,
upon the enemy's position at Centreville and Manassas.^
Deliberations had progressed thus far when rumors of
what was going on reached the General-in-Chief. His
friend, Edwin M. Stanton, then about to be made Secre-
tary of War, brought the first hint, in characteristically
acrid language. " They are counting," said he, " on your
death, and are already dividing among themselves your
military goods and chattels." ^ No tonic on the invalid's
table could have done so much to hasten his convalescence.
350 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Mustering his returning strength, he had himself driven,
on Sunday morning,*° to the White House, where the
President, receiving him kindly, invited him to attend one
of the conferences, which was to be held on the following
day. At the appointed time, McClellan met the cabinet
officers and military men, already spoken of, in Mr. Lin-
coln's office. The situation was, to say the least, embar-
rassing, especially for the President. He wished to pre-
serve cordial relations among these men ; but he wished,
still more, to carry out the program on which most of
them had virtually agreed. At his request. General Mc-
Dowell explained the plan under consideration, concluding
what he had to say with somewhat of an apology for the
peculiar position in which McClellan's critical illness and
the President's orders had placed the three subordinate
officers present. To this the General-in-Chief curtly re-
plied, "You are entitled to have any opinion you please,"
adding, with evident resentment, that, as he was again
restored to health, further investigations or explanations
were unnecessary. Here Mr. Lincoln interposed to ask
what was to be done and when. McClellan rejoined that
" the case was so clear a blind man could see it." Yet he
straightway proceeded to raise difficulties, in a way that
left most, if not all, of those present less enlightened than
that hypothetical person of impaired vision. At last, Mr.
Chase — once McClellan's friend and sponsor, now his
declared opponent *^ — repeated, with manifest impatience,
the President's question. To which the General-in-Chief
promptly replied that the Secretary of the Treasury had
no right to interrogate him about military affairs. Turn-
ing to Mr. Lincoln, he protested, on grounds of secrecy,
against developing his plans before such advisers ; and
declared that he would do so only in obedience to a writ-
ten order, and on the President's responsibility. It was
obviously high time to terminate this discussion, which
appeared to be drifting Into a dangerous channel. So
Mr. Lincoln asked McClellan whether he had fixed upon
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 351
a date, in his own mind, for commencing operations. The
General answered, " Yes." '* Then," said the President,
" I will adjourn this meeting." *^
In averting a disclosure of his plans to a mixed council
of civilians and soldiers, McClellan conformed to time-
honored military traditions. Absolute secrecy is the car-
dinal rule of strategy. It received pithy expression from
the Great Frederick, when he said that if his night-cap
knew what was in his head, he would throw it into the fire ;
and President Lincoln, trying to put down a civil war
from a Capital infested with spies, had not been slow to
recognize the truth of the principle. In fact, just a week
before the meeting here described, he had, at a conference
with his cabinet and the Committee on the Conduct of the
War, surprised the latter gentlemen, not only by admit-
ting that the administration was ignorant of McClellan's
plans, but still more, by approving of the General's reti-
cence. It was to a sympathetic judgment, therefore, that
our officer had addressed his plea against divulging mili-
tary secrets. The President, as we have seen, yielded
gracefully. Restoring McClellan to the saddle, he ad-
journed, without date, the meeting from which so much
had been expected. Yet this was done, be it said, not
without a feeling that his own wishes had again been
thwarted ; and that the General-in-Chief, now more than
ever, stood obligated to lose not a day in getting the army
under way.
Here closed what may be called the first phase in the
relations between President Lincoln and General Mc-
Clellan. That the pretensions of this accomplished but
autocratic soldier had been suffered to go month after
month unchecked was owing, of course, to unique con-
ditions. If during that period " the Chief Magistrate," as
one caustic pamphleteer expressed it, " went into voluntary
or involuntary eclipse " so far as directing the movements
of the army was concerned, he did what any prudent
leader without military training would have done. Yet so
352 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
heavy were tlie drafts made on Lincoln's forbearance,
that his almost unbounded patience had, by this time,
nearly reached the vanishing point. Indeed, an incident
which happened within a week after McClellan's trium-
phant dispersal of the President's little council affords a
glimpse once more of the master whose strong hand curbed
Seward, Chase, and Stanton.
Early in the winter of 1861-62, Washington had been
visited by the tuneful Hutchinson family. Their concerts
of ballads and patriotic songs had drawn enthusiastic
audiences. After singing at one of the White House
receptions, greatly to the enjoyment of Mr. Lincoln, they
had applied to the Secretary of War for permission to
entertain the soldiers in the camps across the Potomac.
A pass was readily secured from Mr. Cameron,*^ through
the good offices of Secretary Chase, between whom and
the Hutchinsons existed the strong bond of anti-slavery
opinions. As it happened, the singers did not journey
far. Their first concert was given before two New Jersey
regiments of General Franklin's division, in the spacious
chapel connected with Fairfax Seminary, near Alexan-
dria. Number after number was applauded by the sol-
diers, until the vocalists began John G. W^hittier's hymn
of liberty, " Ein Feste Burg 1st Unser Gott." They had
finished the third verse, —
" What gives the wheat fields blades of steel ?
What points the rebel cannon ?
What sets the roaring rabble's heel
On the old star-spangled pennon ?
What breaks the oath
Of the men o' the South ?
What whets the knife
For the Union's life ? —
Hark to the answer : Slavery ! "
when a hiss was heard from a corner of the church. Sur-
geon Lewis W. Oakley had taken this method of showing
his contempt for abolition doctrine. The gage was picked
up by Major David Hatfield. Rising in a front pew, he
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 353
angrily threatened to have any one ejected who should re-
peat the interruption. A brief altercation ensued, amidst
cheers, hisses, and much confusion. Order was at last
restored, but the song was not finished. On the follow-
ing morning, General Kearney, in command at Fairfax,
prohibited the next concert, for which preparations were
making ; and a copy of the obnoxious hymn was forwarded
to Franklin's headquarters, whence the matter finally
reached General McClellan. He promptly disposed of it
by revoking the pass, as well as the permit to sing for the
troops. Returning to Washington, the Hutchinsons laid
their grievance before a sympathetic listener in the per-
son of their friend. Secretary Chase. He carried into the
next cabinet meeting a copy of the alleged " incendiary "
verses ; and, what was of greater moment, entered a pro-
test against the action of McClellan in annulling a permit
issued by his superior. Secretary Cameron. ^^ On hearing
the words read, Mr. Lincoln warmly approved of the
hymn. It was, he remarked, just the kind of a song for
the soldiers to hear ; and, as far as canceled passes were
concerned, the Hutchinsons should have the right to go
among any of the troops whose commanders invited them
to sing. Our melodious friends retraced their steps, forth-
with, to Alexandria, where they gave two concerts —
interdicted song and all — before delighted audiences of
soldiers.^
Throughout the North, meanwhile, this interlude had
created much excitement. Factional feeling ran high. In-
censed as the Radicals were, they found not a little com-
fort in the fact that the President had brought himself,
at last, directly to reverse an order of the General-in-
Chief ; while McClellan's admirers gloried in his recent
recovery of the command, and insisted that he should not
be hampered by civilian interference. Standing between
these two forces, Lincoln now opposed his masterful will
to both. He declined to remove McClellan, as one faction
demanded, or to leave him in absolute military control, as
354 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
was urged by the other. The President had, in fact, been
preparing himself to take that control into his own hands.
For weeks he had devoted every available moment to a
study of strategy. Text-books, reports, plans, and maps,
over which he pored, at times, late into the night, as well
as numerous consultations with commanders in active ser-
vice, had gone far toward removing the feeling of help-
lessness with which he originally approached military
matters. Consequently, when the General-in-Chief came,
near the close of January, with his project for a campaign
against Richmond by way of Chesapeake Bay, the Presi-
dent received him in a new role. Disapproving of this
route, which involved prolonged preparation, he deter*
mined to put forward his own plan again, not, however,
as before, in the form of a suggestion, but of a positive
command.
On the 27th of January, Mr. Lincoln, without consult-
ing the General-in-Chief, or his cabinet advisers, to whom
he merely read the document for their information, issued
the " President's General War Order No. 1." In this he
directed " that the 22d day of February, 1862, be the day
for a general movement of the land and naval forces of
the United States against the insurgent forces." Specify-
ing, moreover, which troops were chiefly meant, — the list
of course included the Army of the Potomac, — he an-
nounced " that the heads of departments, and especially
the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, with all their
subordinates, and the General-in-Chief, with all other com-
manders and subordinates of land and naval forces, will
severally be held to their strict and full responsibilities
for prompt execution of this order." *^ Having by virtue
of his constitutional authority thus assumed the active
direction of military operations, Mr. Lincoln, four days
later, issued the "President's Special War Order No. 1."
This commanded " that all the disposable force of the
Army of the Potomac, after providing safely for the de-
fence of Washington, be formed into an expedition for the
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 355
immediate object of seizing and occupying a point upon
the railroad southwestward of what is known as Manassas
Junction, all details to be in the discretion of the Com-
mander-in-Chief, and the expedition to move before or on
the 22d day of February next." *'^ McClellan protested.
He asked permission to submit in writing his objections
to the overland route, and his reasons for preferring to
advance by way of the Chesapeake. These arguments
had doubtless already been considered in the course of his
recent discussions with the President, yet Mr. Lincoln
gave the desired consent. He even furnished McClellan
with a basis for his memorandum, in the following note :
Executive Mansion, Washington,
February 3, 1862,
Majok-General McClellan,
My dear Sir : — You and I have distinct and diiSPerent
plans for a movement of the Army of the Potomac —
yours to be down the Chesapeake, up the Rappahannock
to Urbana, and across land to the terminus of the rail-
road on the York River; mine to move directly to a
point on the railroad southwest of Manassas.
If you will give me satisfactory answers to the follow-
ing questions, I shall gladly yield my plan to yours.
Firsts Does not your plan involve a greatly larger
expenditure of time and money than mine ?
Second^ Wherein is a victory more certain by your plan
than mine?
Third, Wherein is a victory more valuable by your
plan than mine ?
Fourth, In fact, would it not be less valuable in this,
that it would break no great line of the enemy's com-
munications, while mine would ?
Fifth, In case of disaster, would not a retreat be more
difficult by your plan than mine ?
Yours truly,
Abraham Lincoln.*^
356 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
These questions were never directly answered. What
might be regarded as McClellan's replies to them were
embodied in an elaborate statement of his views, ad-
dressed, on the same day, not to the President, but to the
Secretary of War. Opening this paper with a defence
of his course in not advancing until the Army of the
Potomac was fully prepared for action, the General-in-
Chief proceeded to give both plans of campaign detailed
consideration. He opposed the attack upon Manassas in
a series of ingenious objections, which were based prima-
rily— as transpired too late — on a gross exaggeration of
the enemy's strength. He advocated, with equal earnest-
ness, the adoption of the Chesapeake route, by way pre-
ferably of Urbana. Should that fail him, however, as a
landing point, Mob Jack Bay was suggested, or — " the
worst coming to the worst " — Fortress Monroe. And
these considerations brought the General to a significant
summing up. " It is by no means certain," he wrote,
" that we can beat them at Manassas. On the other line,
I regard success as certain, by all the chances of war." *^
There was nothing equivocal about such language, and
the writer flattered himself that it should have carried
conviction.^" " This letter," he said later, " must have
produced some effect upon the mind of the President,
since the execution of his order was not required, although
it was not revoked as formally as it had been issued." ^^
True, the letter had " produced some effect " on Lin-
coln's mind, but hardly in the way implied by McClel-
lan's contemptuous phrase. The President's confidence
in the merits of his own plan remained unshaken. For
political, no less than for military reasons, an immediate
attack upon the enemy before Washington, by a column
which should protect the Union Capital while advanc-
ing upon Richmond, appeared wiser to him than a flank
movement that, uncovering Washington for a shorter
march to the Confederate Capital, would still consume, m
transportation down the Chesapeake, much more time and
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 357
money. Experts, reviewing McClellan's plan since the
war, along purely strategical lines, have differed widely
in their opinions of its soundness. The President's plan,
on the other hand, as more nearly meeting the require-
ments of the situation, had the approval, at the time, of
some able soldiers, and of well-nigh all the civilians whom
he consulted. Mr. Stanton, the new Secretary of War,
was especially earnest in its support ; and he urged Mr.
Lincoln, as has been related, to insist upon having his way.
Here is where the " effect," produced on the President's
mind by McClellan's views, came into play. Though the
General-in-Chief had failed to prove that the Chesapeake
route was the better of the two, he had committed him-
self, in his letter, so unreservedly against the overland
plan, as to put all thought of forcing it upon him out of
the question. Lincoln's abundant common sense, to say
nothing of his recent military studies, saved him from
the blunder of ordering a commander upon a campaign
in which that officer placed no confidence. The Chief
Magistrate had, it is true, taken the reins into his own
hands; yet he knew with unerring precision — as we have
repeatedly seen — when to tighten and when to slacken
his hold. So, despite the vigorous remonstrance of the
Committee on the Conduct of the War, Secretary Stan-
ton, and many other influential men, preparations were
begun for transporting the army down the Chesapeake.
The President directed, however, that the troops should
not leave Washington for this distant field, until the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad had been reopened, and
the enemy's batteries on the Potomac destroyed. Here
arose another source of disagreement between Lincoln
and McClellan. According to the General's theory, these
positions would necessarily be abandoned by the Confed-
erates, as soon as his prospective operations on the Lower
Chesapeake should be developed ; but that this would in-
evitably be the result, he failed — no less than in the case
of the project itself — to convince the President or his
358 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
advisers. " They had," wrote McClellan scornfully, some
years later, " neither the courage nor the military insight
to understand the effect of the plan." ^^ Yielding, never-
theless, to Mr. Lincoln's decided opinions, he reluctantly
prepared to carry out the President's wishes in these two
particulars. As the railroad was interrupted near Har-
per's Ferry, McClellan determined to cross the Upper
Potomac at that point, in force, by means of a permanent
bridge to be constructed of canal-boats, cover the rebuild-
ing of the railroad-bridge, and push on to Winchester,
where he expected to fight a battle. Meanwhile, the Con-
federate batteries on the Lower Potomac were to be
stormed by a division under General Hooker. So san-
guine was McClellan of the result that he assured Mr.
Lincoln, before leaving Washington, of a brilliant and
successful dash. Every contingency had seemingly been
provided for. " If this move fails," he said, " I will have
nobody to blame but myself." ^^ In fact, there is reason
to believe that, all his theories to the contrary notwith-
standing, the General-in-Chief thought, at the time, of
turning these simple operations into what the President
had wanted — a decisive overland campaign.^*
About Washington's birthday, — the date set by Mr.
Lincoln, — an advance may be said to have been in pro-
gress. A strong force, collected near Harper's Ferry, held
itself ready to move. The canal-boats lay in the Chesa-
peake and Ohio Canal, whence they were to be floated
into the Potomac. Everything looked favorable for the
immediate construction of a stout bridge and the rapid
passage of a powerful army into Virginia. McClellan him-
self hastened to the spot. A considerable portion of his
troops were under orders to follow. On February 26, he
despatched back to the War Department an enthusiastic
message. On the 27th, all was gloom and disappointment.
When the canal-boats had, that morning, reached the lift-
lock through which alone they could pass into the river,
they were found to be too wide by several inches.^^ With
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 359
this discovery, celerity of movement — the essential fac-
tor in the affair — became impossible. The expedition,
as planned, was at once abandoned. McClellan coun-
termanded his order for an advance from the Capital,
and revoked, at the same time. Hooker's instructions to
attack the batteries.^" After taking measures to cover the
restoration of the railroad, the General-in-Chief returned
to Washington. Another brilliant project had come to
naught, in rather a ridiculous manner. As some wag, at
the time, remarked, it " died of lockjaw."
The fiasco at Harper's Ferry increased the number and
bitterness of McClellan's opponents. In their denuncia-
tions to the President, they accused him, all told, of every
fault that may be charged against an unsuccessful general,
not stopping short of even the most heinous — treason to
his cause. What impression, if any, such wild talk made
upon Lincoln cannot now be known. Without really
doubting the General's loyalty, he probably deemed it
necessary to let him know how others felt on the subject.
Perhaps the President hoped, by a revelation of this sort,
to sting that self-satisfied officer into doing what had
become as important to his impaired reputation as to
the success of the Union arms. At all events, we have
McClellan's own word for an extraordinary interview
between Lincoln and himself .^^ The President, according
to this account, sent for his General-in-Chief, early on
the morning of the 8th of March. After expressing his
chagrin at the outcome of the Harper's Ferry expedition,^
Mr. Lincoln said that he desired to talk about another —
" a very ugly matter." It had been represented to him,
he continued, that the movement by way of the Lower
Chesapeake " was conceived with the traitorous intent of
removing its defenders from Washington, and thus giving
over to the enemy the Capital and the government, thus
left defenceless." If it was the President's purpose to
arouse McClellan, he certainly succeeded ; for the General
resented, with hot indignation, this imputation on his
36o LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
honor. Mr. Lincoln hastened to assure him " that he
merely repeated what others had said, and that he did
not believe a word of it," himself. McClellan replied
with a suggestion, by which he hoped to set all doubts on
the subject at rest. He had called, he explained, a meet-
ing of division commanders at his headquarters, that very
morning, to consider another proposed attack upon the
enemy's Potomac batteries. Why not lay before them,
he asked, the question of the Chesapeake route ? And to
this the President readily consented.
It was more than a coincidence that Mr. Lincoln on
the same day emphasized, by a step in another direction,
the passing of McClellan's military supremacy. For some
time the advisability of dividing the Army of the Poto-
mac into army corps had been under consideration. That
so large a body of troops could not be maneuvered to
advantage by brigades and divisions was generally con-
ceded. All the experienced officers whom the President
consulted advised against a campaign in any but corps
formation ; every modern text-book that he could lay his
hands on, as well as the practice in European warfare,
sustained this counsel ; and leading supporters of the
administration, especially the Committee on the Conduct
of the War, besought him to effect such an organization
before the army took the field. McClellan, himself,
acknowledged the wisdom of the measure. Nevertheless,
when urged by Mr. Lincoln to form army corps, he
declared his intention not to do so until active service
" had indicated what general officers were best fitted to
exercise those most important commands." Taking the
ground, correctly enough, that incompetent men in such
positions "might cause irreparable damage," he deter-
mined to pick his corps commanders, later on, with the
greatest possible care.^^ It did not occur to him, appar-
ently, that any one but he would venture to make these
selections — they came so clearly within his province.
Had he not, moreover, while at the zenith of his popularity.
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 361
served notice on the administration concerning such very
matters ? In a letter addressed to Secretary Cameron, as
early as September 8, 1861, McCIellan had written : —
" I have selected general and staff officers with distinct
reference to their fitness for the important duties that may
devolve upon them. Any change or disposition of such
officers without consulting the commanding General may
fatally impair the efficiency of this army and the success
of its operations. I therefore earnestly request that in
future every general officer appointed upon my recom-
mendation shall be assigned to this army ; that I shall
have full control of the officers and troops in this depart-
ment ; and that no orders shall be given respecting my
command without my being first consulted. It is evident
that I cannot otherwise be responsible for the success of
our arms." ^
The theory on which this precept rested was sound.
But the all-powerful General, who asserted his preroga-
tive with such spirit in September, 1861, had, during the
intervening six months, frittered away, by this and that,
as we have seen, much of the prestige essential to the lofty
part he desired to play. A military role can be sustained,
in the last analysis, by military prowess alone. The
McCIellan who stood before Lincoln on the defensive, in
that early morning interview after Harper's Ferry, was a
very different man, so to say, from the McCIellan to whom
Lincoln had deferred after Bull Run. At all events, the
President treated him differently. For that very day, as
soon as their conflicting plans of campaign were submitted
to the division commanders, Mr. Lincoln, anticipating an
advance either way, took the matter of army corps into
his own hands. Without consulting the General-in-Chief,
he framed the " President's General War Order No. 2,"
directing McCIellan forthwith to organize that part of
the Army of the Potomac which was intended for active
operations into four corps ; and assigning them, respec-
tively, to the ranking division commanders. Generals
362 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
McDowell, Sumner, Heintzelman, and Keyes.*'^ Three of
these, it has been frequently remarked, were known to
favor the President's rather than McClellan's plan. That
they felt out of sympathy, to this extent at least, with the
General-in-Chief, and that none of the appointments were,
for other reasons, of an ideal character, cannot be gain-
said. Yet it was once in McClellan's power — his own
partisans agree — to order things otherwise. Had he
formed the army corps when Mr. Lincoln desired them, the
selection of their commanders would, most likely, have
been left to his judgment. As it was, lieutenants whom
he would probably not have chosen were, at the eleventh
hour, imposed upon him, to the exclusion of officers who
enjoyed his confidence. McClellan's first intimation of
these radical changes in his own army is said to have
reached him only after the order had been issued. Sur-
prised and pained beyond measure, he realized too late
what embarrassment might have been averted in this quar-
ter by more courteous attention to the President's wishes.
Meanwhile the council of war called by the General-in-
Chief had taken place. Eight of the twelve generals pre-
sent, without discussion or deliberation, voted offhand in
favor of McClellan's plan.^^ At a subsequent interview
between them and the President, in which the Secretary
of War participated, these officers were put through a
searching examination ; but the same majority stood by
their approval of the Chesapeake route. Before so strong
an endorsement Mr. Lincoln's opposition fell away, once
for all. Mr. Stanton, on the other hand, stubbornly per-
sisted in his antagonism. Like Chase, Wade, Chandler,
and so many other earnest leaders, the head of the War
Department was fast losing confidence in the commander
upon whom they had all looked, not many months previous,
as the rising hope of the Union cause. McClellan's Fabian
tactics cost him much. Perhaps the heaviest single price
was Stanton's regard. Totally unlike Lincoln in this re-
spect, the grim war minister, once a man had fallen under
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 363
his displeasure, could never again entirely divest himself
of the resulting prejudice. It was with more than his
customary vehemence, therefore, that Stanton, believing
firmly in the President's plan, opposed McClellan's. He
decried — to repeat somewhat from a preceding chapter —
the project under which more than one hundred thousand
troops were to be set afloat in wooden bottoms to seek a
battle-field many miles away, while the enemy lay fortified
before the Capital. Stanton's ingenious reasoning — for
the question was discussed at length — failed to move Mr.
Lincoln. Admitting the force of the Secretary's objec-
tions, he remained steadfast in his decision to abide by
the action of the council, and instructed him to proceed
with the preparations for the campaign. McClellan's plan
was to have right of way, after all.
How closely Mr. Lincoln, notwithstanding this conces-
sion, adhered to some of his purposes, may be gathered
from the " President's General War Order No. 3." This,
like its immediate predecessor, he issued without consult-
ing McClellan, on that same eventful 8th of March. It
prohibited any change of base by the Army of the Poto-
mac, unless such a force were stationed around Washing-
ton as would, " in the opinion of the General-in-Chief and
the commanders of all the army corps," leave that city
" entirely secure." It ordered " an immediate effort to
capture the enemy's batteries " upon the Lower Potomac ;
and, until this was accomplished, "no more than two
army corps " were to embark on the Chesapeake. Finally,
the movement down the bay was to begin " as early as the
18th day of March," with the General-in-Chief held per-
sonally " responsible " for attention to that date.^^ The
peremptory, almost harsh tones of this order should have
warned McClellan that he had won a precarious victory.
Still, it may be doubted whether the President's rising ire,
or his anxiety for the safety of Washington, made much
of an impression on the General's mind. He was, how-
ever, greatlj troubled over the restrictions laid upon him
364 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
in these last two mandates of the President — General
Orders Nos. 2 and 3. They are not, it is true, entirely-
defensible from a military point of view ; yet McClellan
had clearly brought them upon himself by his own errors,
his dilatory tactics, and, above all, his total failure to
recognize Lincoln's dual responsibility to the nation for
success in the field as well as in the cabinet. It has been
said, with some force, that a General-in-Chief who needed
to be hampered by such orders had outlived his usefulness
in that exalted office. Doubtless the President was ap-
proaching this conclusion, but he did not contemplate the
removal of McClellan from the command of the particular
army which owed so much of its discipline and enthusiasm
to the General's administrative talents. Lincoln's faith
in McClellan's star was far from spent. He still believed
that this commander, at the head of the Army of the
Potomac, — once they were fairly launched together upon
a campaign, — would justify all his forbearance.
The test came sooner than the President had expected.
Within twenty-four hours after Orders 2 and 3 were
put forth, on Sunday, March 9, startling news reached
Washington — the Confederate batteries on the Potomac
had been abandoned, and the Army of Northern Virginia
was retreating southward from Manassas. Incredulous,
almost stupefied, at this unlooked-for intelligence, Mc-
Clellan, as soon as it could be verified, ordered the entire
army to move, the following day, upon the enemy's lines.
Before he started, however, occurred a tilt between him
and the Secretary of War, which illustrates down to how
slender a thread had worn the once cordial ties between
the General-in-Chief and the government. During that
Sunday evening, McClellan telegraphed to Stanton, from
the front : —
" In the arrangements for the advance of to-morrow it
is impossible to carry into efPect the arrangements for the
formation of army corps. I am obliged to take groups as
I find them and to move them by divisions. I respect-
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 365
fully ask a suspension of the order directing it, till the
present movement be over."
To this the Secretary curtly replied : —
" I think it is the duty of every officer to obey the Pre-
sident's orders, nor can I see any reason why you should
not obey them in present instance. 1 must therefore de-
cline to suspend them."
At one o'clock A. M., McClellan sent this explanation
over the wire : —
" You have entirely misunderstood me, and the idea I
intended to convey was simply that I could not, under the
pressure of the new aspect of affairs, immediately carry out
the President's orders as to the formation of army corps.
It is absolutely necessary that I should at once move
divisions as they stand. If you require me to suspend
movements until army corps can be formed, I will do so ;
but I regard it as a military necessity that the divisions
should move to the front at once, without waiting for the
formation of army corps. If it is your order to wait until
the corps can be formed, I will, of course, wait. I will
comply with the President's order as soon as possible.
I intended to do so to-morrow, but circumstances have
changed. If you desire it, I will at once countermand all
the orders I have given for an advance until the formation
of army corps is completed. I have only to add that the
orders I have given to-night to advance early in the morn-
ing will be dictated solely by the present position of affairs.
If the leave to suspend the order be granted, there will
be no unreasonable delay in the formation of army corps.
I await your reply here. If you so direct that I may
countermand my orders at once, please reply at once."
Stanton promptly rejoined : —
" I do not understand the President's order as restraining
you from any military movement by divisions or otherwise
that circumstances in your judgment may render expedient,
and I certainly do not wish to delay or change any move-
ment whatever that you have made or desire to make. I
266 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
only wish to avoid giving my sanction to a suspension of a
policy which the President has ordered to be pursued. But
if you think that the terms of the order as it stands would
operate to retard or in any way restrain movements that
circumstances require to be made before the army corps
are formed, I will assume the responsibility of suspending
the order for that purpose, and authorize you to make any
movement by divisions or otherwise, according to your own
judgment, without stopping to form the army corps. My
desire is that you should exercise every power that you
think present circumstances require to be exercised, with-
out delay ; but I want that you and I shall not seem to
be desirous of opposing an order of the President without
necessity. I say, therefore, move just as you think best
now, and let the other matter stand until it can be done
without impeding movements."
It was nearly three o'clock in the morning when the
General closed the incident with this message : —
"Your reply received. The troops are in motion. I
thank you for your despatch. It relieves me much, and
you will be convinced that I have not asked too much of
you." «*
Redeeming his promise, three days later, McClellan
constituted the army corps in accordance with Mr. Lin-
coln's orders.^^
Important history was making in the mean time. The
Army of the Potomac had started at last. Advancing into
Virginia with unaccustomed celerity, it gallantly stormed
those abandoned works at Centreville and Manassas. The
recent tenants, it is true, were safely on their way to a new
haven beyond the Rappahannock. As they had taken the
precaution, moreover, to destroy the bridges behind them,
there was nothing left for the disgusted pursuers but to
retrace their steps from the deserted camps. On all sides
were unmistakable indications of how inferior, in numbers
and munitions of war, had been the Confederate force
to the splendid array which it had kept at bay so long.
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 367
That the dismantled barracks evidently had not held one
half the men McClellan affirmed to be there, looked bad
enough ; but that, for lack of sufficient heavy artillery,
painted logs filled a number of the embrasures in the
fortifications, was infinitely worse. These " Quaker guns,"
as they were called, made the whole North laugh. On the
under side of its merriment, however, lay a feeling of
mortification and disappointment that boded no good to
the fame of the " Young Napoleon." Painfully alive to the
blow-holes in his armor, he poured out the bitterness of
his soul to the fond wife at home. " I regret," he wrote
from Fairfax Court House, " that the rascals are after me
again. I had been foolish enough to hope that when I
went into the field they would give me some rest, but it
seems otherwise. Perhaps I should have expected it. If
I can get out of this scrape, you will never catch me in the
power of such a set again. The idea of persecuting a man
behind his back ! I suppose they are now relieved from
the pressure of their fears by the retreat of the enemy,
and that they will increase in virulence." ^ Who " the
rascals " were may be surmised. The men who had, week
after week, supported the President's plan for immediate
operations against the enemy's position at Manassas now
claimed that Mr. Lincoln's judgment had been vindicated
by the event. They grew hot over McClellan's failure to
seize so cheap a victory when it lay within his grasp, and
sarcastic at the manner in which vast hosts and impreg-
nable ramparts had melted away together. What seemed
most difficult to understand was the General's ignorance
of how matters had been going within the lines of an
enemy stationed, for over seven months, not more than a
day's march from his camp." McClellan's loyalty again
became a debated question, and friends of the adminis-
tration once more beset the Executive with appeals for
his removal.
Circumstances had certainly conspired to place the
General in an awkward situation ; yet he, or more pre^
368 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
cisely speaking, his facile pen, was almost equal to the
emergency. In his official papers he ascribes the Confed-
erates' "very sudden" retreat to information which they
had received of his intended movement down the Chesa-
peake, and he points to this retirement toward Richmond
as conclusive proof that his projected operations would
have compelled the evacuation of Manassas. Persisting,
moreover, in his delusions, or those of his secret service
officers, as to the enemy's strength, he claims to have
found ample corroboration of their estimates. A stack
of affidavits were introduced to bear out the official re-
port of March 8 that credited the southern army before
Washington with "115,500 men, about 300 field guns,
and from 26 to 30 siege guns." Upon these figures he
impales, with fine scorn, " the ignorance which led some
journals at that time, and persons in high office, unwit-
tingly to trifle with the reputation of an army, and to
delude the country with Quaker-gun stories of the defences
and gross understatements of the numbers of the enemy." ^
Verily McClellan's pen was mightier than his sword, yet
it could not slay the facts. It is now established beyond
a doubt that General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding
the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, had long
regarded his position at Manassas and Centreville as un-
tenable. Anticipating attack, he commenced on the 23d
of February the retrograde movement which was skil-
fully completed on the 9th of March. So the " very sud-
den" retreat which McClellan and his eulogists charged
to indiscreet disclosures of what took place at the council
of March 8 ^^ had, in fact, been going on for two weeks
previous to that date. We have General Johnston's own
word for it that he received no warning concerning the
Chesapeake plan, and that his withdrawal was due solely
to fear of some such flank movement as Lincoln is now
known to have advocated. An advance along this route
the Confederate leader looked upon as "the most diffi-
cult to meet." True to the rules of strategy, he assumed
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 369
that McClellan would discover the weak spot, and strike
there.^" But nothing, as we have seen, could convince
the Union commander of his opportunity. During the
very period in which he was declaring the President's plan
impracticable, chiefly on the ground that the Manassas
line held a force, variously estimated at from 115,500 to
150,000 men, Johnston's official report showed just 47,306
men, present for duty, in the entire Department of North-
ern Virginia.^^ McClellan, at the same time, had present
for duty in the Army of the Potomac officers and men
amounting to 185,4207^ Nor does the General-in-Chief
emerge in any better light from the episode of the imita-
tion guns. His sweeping denial breaks down beneath the
evidence of trustworthy men who saw them in the defences,
to say nothing of General Johnston's explanation of how
they came to be there. The Confederate commander,
referring to his officers at Centreville, writes : —
" As we had not artillery enough for their works and
for the army fighting elsewhere, at the same time, rough
wooden imitations of guns were made, and kept near the
embrasures, in readiness for exhibition in them. To con-
ceal the absence of carriages, the embrasures were covered
with sheds made of bushes. These were the Quaker guns
afterward noticed in northern papers." ^^
At every essential point in this affair McClellan stands
condemned. To what precise extent was of course not
revealed until long thereafter ; yet enough became known
without delay to justify the opinion that he had been
completely outgeneraled.
When failure overtakes a commander through his own
repeated neglect to carry out the desires of his superiors,
he becomes a proper subject for discipline. So at last
thought Lincoln. Though " slow to smite and swift to
spare," he could withhold the blow no longer. For, what
the President's most influential advisers had not suc-
ceeded in bringing about, speedily ensued upon McClel-
lan's fruitless "promenade" to Manassas. This revelation
370 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
^f how much the General's inaction probably cost the
Union cause aroused Lincoln's belated indignation. All
the pent-up irritation of weeks found vent in one mighty
outburst of wrath. A scene not unlike that enacted by
President Washington when he received the tidings of St.
Clair's disaster is said to have taken place. Lincoln's
passion was hailed by Senator Chandler, who related
the incident, as an omen of better days. "Old Abe," said
he exultingly, " is mad, and the war will now go on." ^^
Before the Executive slept on the first night that saw
the retreating Confederates securely encamped behind the
Rappahannock, he issued the " President's Special War
Order No. 3." ^^ This mandate deposed McClellan from
the command-in-chief on the ostensible ground that he
had " personally taken the field," and limited his author-
ity to the Department of the Potomac. All department
commanders, furthermore, including several newly ap-
pointed, were instructed to report directly to the Secre-
tary of War.^® Here was a serious reverse in McClellan's
f©rtunes, yet he knew nothing about it until the Washing-
ton newspapers reached Fairfax Court House on the fol-
lowing day. Taken " entirely by surprise," as he tells us,
the General appekrs to have seen no reason — and how
characteristic of the man that was ! — for Mr. Lincoln's
order, while his partisans resented the way in which the
change had been made perhaps more than the act itself.
Nevertheless, McClellan kissed the chastening rod. He
straightway sent the President a graceful letter, in which,
with expressions of esteem and gratitude, the writer
promised cheerful submission.^^
One of McClellan's first steps thereafter was to obey
Mr. Lincoln's General Order No. 3, for a council of corps
commanders. Summoning the four who were with him at
Fairfax Court House, as has been narrated in a previous
chapter, he laid the President's requirements before them.
They unanimously pronounced the Chesapeake route by
way of Urbana, on the Rappahannock, unavailable, since
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 371
the enemy had retreated south of the river ; and agreed
that the projected operations down the bay could best
be carried out — the navy cooperating — on the peninsula
between the York and the James rivers, with Fortress
Monroe as a base. They stipulated, moreover, that the
force left behind for the protection of Washington should
be sufficient " to give an entire feeling of security for
its safety from menace." This required between 40,000
and 55,000 men, according to the commanders' several
estimates, in which McClellan apparently acquiesced.^^
Though the Peninsula plan had been described by him,
not many weeks before, as a last resort, to be adopted
only when the worst came to the worst, he approved of
that too, and telegraphed Mr. Stanton : " The council
of commanders of army corps have unanimously agreed
upon a plan of operations. General McDowell will at once
proceed with it to Washington and lay it before you."
The Secretary immediately replied : " Whatever plan
has been agreed upon, proceed at once to execute with-
out losing an hour for my approval." ^
Later in the day, however, came the President's ap-
proval, in a form which still further illustrates the temper
of the government. Directing McClellan again to " leave
Washington entirely secure," it authorized him to choose
a new base anywhere between Fortress Monroe and the
Capital, so long as he moved " the army at once in pursuit
of the enemy, by some route." ^ Official courtesy does not
admit of much stronger language ; but between the lines
we read, as plainly as did a noted war correspondent : —
" Go anywhere, move anywhere you please, only let us
have an end of excuses — do something.'''' ^^
McClellan complied. He made an address to his sol-
diers in approved Napoleonic style, and marched them
to Alexandria, where transports were collecting for the
voyage down the Chesapeake.
Before sailing, McClellan was again made to feel how
great a change had come over his standing with the Presi-
372 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
dent. Mr. Lincoln, while on a visit to Alexandria, men*
tloned to him that he was " strongly pressed " by friends of
Fremont to transfer Blenker's command of about 10,000
men from the Army of the Potomac to the newly created
Mountain Department. It was not his intention, he added,
when the General objected, to deprive McClellan of this
division. Yet the discussion touched that officer on a sen-
sitive spot. In the first flush of his power, during the
autumn of 1861, he had forbidden his superiors to detach
any troops from the army under him, in language even more
dictatorial than that employed to protest against their
appointment of officers without his consent ; ^^ and the
President had meekly promised, at the time, to leave his
force intact. Such promises are outlawed, however, as the
circumstances under which they were given alter. Thus,
no doubt, thought Mr. Lincoln six months later, in the
spring of 1862. For, changing his mind a few days after
the interview at Alexandria, he ordered Blenker's division
to join Fremont. " I did so with great pain," he wrote to
McClellan, " understanding that you would wish it other-
wise. If you could know the full pressure of the case, I
am confident that you would justify it, even beyond a
mere acknowledgment that the Commander-in-Chief may
order what he pleases." ^^ This act has properly enough
been condemned by military writers. Still, in justice to
the President, it should be said that by placating the Fre-
mont wing of the Republican Party, he hoped to keep
united the support without which the war could not have
been carried on. Unfortunately, his political cares evoked
no sympathy from McClellan. The General, it is true,
at a later interview, acquiesced reluctantly in what he
regarded as an unwarrantable exercise of the supreme au-
thority ; but this was only after Mr. Lincoln had assured
him — so McClellan relates — that no other troops should
be withdrawn from his command. Yet, worse remained
behind.
Hardly had McClellan, with part of his army, reached
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 373
Fortress Monroe, when a cry went up that he had left
Washington insecure. An anxious investigation by the
War Department followed. This revealed, as was fully
narrated elsewhere, less than half the number of troops
prescribed by the corps commanders, on guard over the
city. Lincoln's order, so oft repeated, to leave the Capi-
tal " entirely secure " had been flatly disobeyed. That
McClellan, after his recent discipline at the hands of
the President, should again have ventured to pit his will
against Lincoln's, in a matter of such moment, seems in-
conceivable. The General himself, as well as his defenders,
disclaim that he did so. By what might fairly be called a
plea in confession and avoidance, they assert that more
than the required number of men were left at Manassas,
in the valley of the Shenandoah, before Washington, and
elsewhere ; but they fail utterly to show, as indeed they
cannot, that McClellan had heeded the President's explicit
instructions to leave, "in and about Washington," the
force deemed necessary for its protection by the council
of corps commanders. Nor does it improve the General's
case to treat with contempt Lincoln's acute anxiety for
the safety of the National Capital.^* Unfortunately situ-
ated as it was near the frontier, that city, on several occa-
sions during the war, narrowly escaped capture. Such an
event would have been damaging enough to the Union
cause, at any time ; in the spring or summer of 1862,
it might have been fatal. The fall of Washington, to
touch upon but one aspect of a manifold disaster, would
most likely have precipitated European intervention — a
proceeding against which the whole diplomatic strength
of the administration had for months been strained, as
against dissolution itself. It is not surprising, therefore,
that the President placed the defence of the Capital above
every other strategic consideration, or that he had again
and ao;ain renewed his instructions to McClellan on the
subject.
But the General had other views. Assuming that the
374 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
troops left in northern Virginia were ample, all told, to
guard Washington, he had deliberately determined not to
detach from his main army the number of men required
for garrison duty by Mr. Lincoln's orders. Whether or
not this belief was well founded has nothing to do with the
fact of McClellan's insubordination. Equally beside the
question is his much quoted argument that the safety of
the Union Capital could best be secured on the Peninsula,
by an advance in force against Richmond. Whether Mc-
Clellan was correct, moreover, in believing that the Con-
federates would surely defend the lesser, rather than seize
the greater prize, may be doubted. According to military
rules, it is true, the defence of Washington lay at the gates
of Richmond; but unluckily, some of the southern gen-
erals, like the fencer quoted in Macaulay, did not always
fight by rule. Violating the very A B C of warfare, they
more than once thrust in quarte when they should have
thrust in tierce, and incidentally, be it said, made " a hit, a
very palpable hit." Had Lee found the Army of the Poto-
mac operating on the Peninsula, and Washington inade-
quately guarded, would he not have thrown all his strength
into the capture of that city ? To borrow one of his favor-
ite expressions, might he not have swapped queens ? ^
Or worse still, was there any assurance that he could
not have held McClellan in check long enough to take
the Federal piece, and return in time to defend his own ?
The Confederates had recently demonstrated their skill
at blocking the Union general's way, with notably inferior
numbers ; while his record for deliberation hardly war-
ranted much dependence upon him, if suddenly recalled
from a distant field to rescue the Capital. That it should
now be imperiled, or even subjected to a chance of peril,
after so many cautions, aroused the President's just indig-
nation. There seemed but a single thing for him to do.
As soon as the extent of his lieutenant's disobedience was
definitely ascertained, he ordered one of the army corps,
which had not yet embarked for the Peninsula, to be
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 375
held back for the protection of Washington. General
McDowell's corps, comprising about 36,000 men and 68
guns, was accordingly detached from the Army of the
Potomac. Mr. Lincoln, at the same time, fearing lest
Fortress Monroe — recently placed under McClellan's
command — might also be stripped of its troops, further
humiliated the General by practically withdrawing the
post from his control.^^
The news of these changes staggered McClellan. He
was especially distressed over the loss of McDowell's
corps, to which had been assigned the important duty of
turning the Confederate positions at the lower end of
the Peninsula, while the main body attacked in front.
" It is the most infamous thing that history has recorded,"
read his private comment on the President's course, at
the time ; and he straightway — to quote him further —
"raised an awful row." ^^ Protest followed protest, until
Lincoln replied : —
" Your despatches, complaining that you are not pro-
perly sustained, while they do not offend me, do pain me
very much.
" Blenker's division was withdrawn from you before you
left here, and you knew the pressure under which I did
it, and, as I thought, acquiesced in it — certainly not
without reluctance.
" After you left I ascertained that less than 20,000
unorganized men, without a single field-battery, were all
you designed to be left for the defense of Washington
and Manassas Junction, and part of this even was to go
to General Hooker's old position ; General Banks's corps,
once designed for Manassas Junction, was divided and
tied up on the line of Winchester and Strasburg, and
could not leave it without again exposing the Upper Poto-
mac and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. This presented
(or would present, when McDowell and Sumner should be
gone) a great temptation to the enemy to turn back from
the Rappahannock and sack Washington. My explicit
376 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
order that Washington should, by the judgment of all
the commanders of corps, be left entirely secure, had been
neglected. It was precisely this that drove me to detain
McDowell.
" I do not forget that I was satisfied with your arrange-
ment to leave Banks at Manassas Junction ; but when
that arrangement was broken up and nothing was substi-
tuted for it, of course I was not satisfied. I was con-
strained to substitute something for it myself.
" And now allow me to ask, do you really think I should
permit the line from Richmond via Manassas Junction to
this city to be entirely open, except what resistance could
be presented by less than 20,000 unorganized troops?
This is a question which the country will not allow me to
evade." ^
Yet McClellan would not, or could not, then or there-
after, recognize how proper was Mr. Lincoln's solicitude.
Indeed, the General's military harness seems to have been
equipped with blinkers of so prodigious a size that, while
he saw his own ends distinctly enough, the duties and
prerogatives of this mere civilian — President though he
was — made but a hazy impression upon his mind. Only
such purblindness can account for the man's conduct. It
never, apparently, occurred to him that he was in any
way at fault; no more than it did to certain military
critics who, touched by the plight in which he now found
himself, lost sight of his own responsibility in bringing it
about, and cried out against the administration. Yet the
facts confute them. Whatever may have been the errors
of strategy chargeable during this luckless campaign to
Lincoln, Stanton, or McClellan — for honors were easy
in that respect — the loss of McDowell's corps, as well
as the resultant train of mishaps, lies, beyond a doubt, at
the recalcitrant General's door.
McClellan's disappointments rapidly multiplied. Not
only did he find himself deprived of the flanking column
that was to have turned Yorktown, but the gunboats
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 377
npon which he had erroneously depended to reduce its
batteries failed him also ; while the Warwick River, repre-
sented on his faulty maps as off to one side, proved to be
a fortified barrier reaching almost across the Peninsula.
Another General — or rather a truly great one — at the
head of so powerful an army, would have modified his
plans to meet these changed conditions, and have pushed
on. Not so McClellan. Seized with his old weakness for
underrating his own strength and overrating that of the
enemy, he sat down before Yorktown to besiege the
place scientifically. Yet Magruder, the Confederate com-
mander, opposed him, at first, with but 11,000 men, all
told. Six thousand of these were required for the fortifi-
cations at Yorktown and elsewhere, leaving only 5,000 to
defend the line of the Warwick, thirteen miles across the
Peninsula. This latter obstacle could easily have been
pierced by McClellan's overwhelming force, had he acted
promptly. When it became apparent, therefore, that the
opening skirmishes were not to be followed up forthwith
by vigorous fighting, Magruder could hardly believe his
good luck. He reported jubilantly: —
" Thus, with 5,000 men exclusive of the garrisons, we
stopped and held in check over 100,000 of the enemy.
Every preparation was made in anticipation of another
attack by the enemy ; the men slept in the trenches and
under arms, but to my utter surprise he permitted day
after day to elapse without an assault." ^^
Another leading Confederate officer wrote to Richmond,
in terms of mingled contempt and astonishment : —
"No one but McClellan could have hesitated to
attack." ^
Meanwhile Mr. Lincoln, not less surprised, had tele-
graphed to the Union commander : —
" I think you better break the enemy's line from York-
^cown to Warwick River at once." ^^
Whereupon McClellan relieved his mind privately with
the scornful comment : —
378 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
" I was much tempted to reply that he had better come
and do it himself." ^^
In official despatches, however, to the President and to
the Secretary of War, he lamented, on the following day,
tbat he could not attack because his diminished ranks
numbered but 85,000 men, while the enemy's had been
increased to " 100,000 and probably more." It is now
known how extravagant this figure was. No considerable
additions to Magruder's small force were made for several
days ; and when reenforcements did come, in the course of
the month, they raised the effective strength of Johnston,
his successor, to just 55,633 men.^^ McClellan's failure
to attack before these new troops arrived was indefensible.
Had he obeyed Lincoln, the Union army would not have
wasted the precious month before Yorktown, that enabled
the South to concentrate its energies around Richmond ;
the Peninsular campaign would have furnished a vastly
different story ; and the " Young Napoleon " might have
led a triumph in the Confederate Capital, after all.
These circumstances the downright common sense of
the President must have grasped as he hastened to answer
McClellan's complaints.
" There is a curious mystery," he wrote, " about the
number of the troops now with you. When I telegraphed
you on the 6th, saying you had over 100,000 with you,
I had just obtained from the Secretary of War a state-
ment, taken as he said from your own returns, making
108,000 then with you and en route to you. You now say
you will have but 85,000 when all en route to you shall
have reached you. How can this discrepancy of 23,000
be accounted for ?
" As to General Wool's command [at Fortress Monroe],
I understand it is doing for you precisely what a like
number of your own would have to do if that command
was away. I suppose the whole force which has gone for-
ward to you is with you by this time ; and if so, I think
it is the precise time for you to strike a blow. By delay
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 379
the enemy will relatively gain upon you — that is, he
will gain faster by fortifications and reinforcements than
you can by reinforcements alone.
" And once more let me tell you, it is indispensable to
you that you strike a blow. I am powerless to help this.
You will do me the justice to remember I always insisted
that going down the bay in search of a field, instead of
fighting at or near Manassas, was only shifting and not
surmounting a difficulty ; that we would find the same
enemy and the same or equal intrenchments at either
place. The country will not fail to note — is noting now
— that the present hesitation to move upon an intrenched
enemy is but the story of Manassas repeated.
" I beg to assure you that I have never written you or
spoken to you in greater kindness of feeling than now,
nor with a fuller purpose to sustain you, so far as in my
most anxious judgment I consistently can ; but you must
act." »"
Unfortunately, advice from this quarter was as cheap
as ever in the estimation of the General commanding.
His overweening professional conceit would not allow him
to admit that Lincoln could be right in a military matter,
or that there was any parallel between Manassas and
Yorktown. So the siege continued. It went forward with
a precision which would have done credit to the allies in
Flanders. Yet McClellan was not so much occupied that
he could not find time to keep up an almost incessant
demand for more men. Yielding at last to his entreaties,
the President, as has been told more at length elsewhere,
sent down Franklin's division of McDowell's corps. We
have seen how these reenforcements lay below Yorktown
a whole fortnight, idly in the transports ; and how, when
preparations for a grand assault all along the line had
been nearly completed, the beleaguered Confederates cod*
trived to
" fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away."
38o LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
Lincoln's phrase, "the story of Manassas repeated,'*
had been verified in more ways than one. For the second
time in eight weeks, McClellan led the Army of the Poto-
mac into deserted trenches, under conditions that rendered
his victory a tactical defeat ; and for the second time,
the President's directions to attack, had they been fol-
lowed, would have averted a costly blunder.
McClellan of course blamed this inauspicious opening
of the Peninsular campaign on the authorities at Wash-
ington. Nor were they less answerable, according to his
Own Story, for the failures that followed. A morbid
belief in the jealousy of Lincoln and his advisers had
taken firm hold of him. He fancied them engaged in a
conspiracy to sacrifice the Army of the Potomac rather
than allow its commander to reap the political reward
which might result from its success. " That they were
not honest," he says in his book, " is proved by the fact
that, having failed to force me to advance at a time
when an advance would have been madness, they withheld
the means of success when I was in contact with the
enemy, and finally relieved me from command when the
game was in my hands. They determined that I should
not succeed, and carried out their determinations only
too well and at a fearful sacrifice of blood, time, and
treasure." ^^ Having worked himself into this frame of
mind, McClellan — we are not surprised to find — easily
traversed the narrow interval between contempt for his
superiors and something akin to hatred. In fact, from
the beginning to the end of the Peninsular campaign, his
private and at times even his official utterances reveal
far more enmity toward the administration than toward
the opposing foe.
To what extreme the General's embittered feelings
carried him, a few extracts may perhaps sufficiently show.
Writing to his wife, on the steamer which conveyed him
down the Chesapeake, he exults over his escape from " that
sink of iniquity," the National Capital. A few days later,
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 381
after the McDowell episode, he sends her this soothing
message : —
" Don't worry about the wretches ; they have done
nearly their worst, and can't do much more. I am sure
that I will win in the end, in spite of all their rascality.
History will present a sad record of these traitors who are
willing to sacrifice the country and its army for personal
spite and personal aims. The people will soon understand
the whole matter."
During the siege of Yorktown, he lamented : —
" I am tired of public life ; and even now, when I am
doing the best I can for my country in the field, I know
that my enemies are pursuing me more remorselessly than
ever, and ' kind friends ' are constantly making themselves
agreeable by informing me of the pleasant predicament in
which I am — the rebels on one side, and the Abolitionists
and other scoundrels on the other."
A few days thereafter, the fond wife at home received
this despondent note : —
" I feel that the fate of a nation depends upon me,
and I feel that I have not one single friend at the seat of
government."
So the General punctuated his whole luckless expedition
with acrimonious faultfindings. Achilles crying, —
" My wrongs, my wrongs, my constant thought engage,"
was not more dismal. On one occasion, McClellan writes:
" My government, alas ! is not giving me any aid."
On another, a midnight postscript reads : —
" Those hounds in Washington are after me again."
Then he explains : —
" I am as anxious as any human being can be to finish
this war. Yet when I see such insane folly behind me, I
feel that the final salvation of the country demands the
utmost prudence on my part, and that I must not run
the slightest risk of disaster, for if anything happened to
this army, our cause would be lost. . . . But I will yet
382 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
succeed, notwithstanding all they do and leave undone
in Washington to prevent it. I would not have on my
conscience what those men have for all the world."
Still later, the sympathetic helpmeet is assured : —
" You do not feel one bit more bitterly towards those
people than I do. I do not say much about it, but I fear
they have done all that cowardice and folly can do to ruin
our poor country, and the blind people seem not to see it.
It makes my blood boil when I think of it."
And again : —
" I am sick and weary of all this business. I am tired
of serving fools. God help my country ! He alone can
save it." ''
Needless to add, when our country was saved, the writer
of those letters had no hand in the operation. Saviours of
nations are made of different stuff.
Side by side with the General's unsold ierlike, almost
childish railings to Mrs. McClellan against the govern-
ment must be considered his official despatches. If less
violent than his private messages, they still evince a spirit
of antagonism, which at times breaks through all proper
restraint. As the Duke of Wellington, when he came to
publish his despatches, was righted in the good opinion
of those who had misjudged him, it may be said reversely
of the American commander that a similar publication on
his part has caused him to fallin the estimation of many
war-time admirers. To judge by a few of McClellan's
military communications, he fancied himself and Lincoln
to be playing some sort of a game, with men for the count-
ers and personal glory for the stakes. It seems as if the
General accused the administration of cheating over the
count, and as if his incessant calls for more troops must
be satisfied or there would be an end of the whole affair,
with the President overwhelmed beneath a carefully fixed
responsibility for the failure. McClellan's pet delusion,
moreover, that the enemy outnumbered him two to one,
apparently accompanied him throughout the campaign.
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 383
After repeating this belief, at some length, in a letter to
Mr. Lincoln from Cumberland, he wrote : —
" I most respectfully and earnestly urge upon your ex-
cellency that the opportunity has come for striking a fatal
blow at the enemies of the Constitution, and I beg that
you will cause this army to be reinforced without delay
by all the disposable troops of the government. I ask for
every man that the War Department can send me." ^"^
In rather a sharper vein, on the day after the battle of
Hanover Court House, he telegraphed to the War Depart-
ment : —
" It is the policy and duty of the government to send
me by water all the well-drilled troops available. I am
confident that Washington is in no danger. ... It can-
not be ignored that a desperate battle is before us ; if
any regiments of good troops remain unemployed, it will
be an irreparable fault committed." ^^
Another despatch, sent at about the same time, read: —
" The enemy are even in greater force than I had sup-
posed. I will do all that quick movements can accomplish,
but you must send me all the troops you can, and leave
to me full latitude as to choice of commanders." ^
McClellan's insistence upon absolute authority in the
field was theoretically correct. His disobedience, however,
of the President's directions concerning the safety of
Washington had seriously impaired the General's title
to untrammeled command over one particular column, at
least. When McDowell finally advanced overland to co-
operate with him, Mr. Lincoln especially stipulated that
the junior officer should retain control of all his troops,
and that he should receive from the General command-
ing no orders which would place him out of position to
cover the Capital. Nevertheless, as these reenforcements
approached, McClellan telegraphed to the Secretary of
War: —
" It ought to be distinctly understood that McDowell
and his troops are completely under my control. I received
384 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
a telegram from him requesting that McCall's division
might be placed so as to join him immediately on his
arrival.
" That request does not breathe the proper spirit.
Whatever troops come to me must be disposed of so as to
do the most good. I do not feel that, in such circum-
stances as those in which I am now placed, General
McDowell should wish the general interests to be sacri-
ficed for the purpose of increasing his command.
" If I cannot fully control all his troops, I want none of
them, but would prefer to fight the battle with what I
have, and let others be responsible for the results." ^'^
This ultimatum apparently received no attention. And
as McDowell was again recalled, at the eleventh hour, to
the defence of Washington, the question raised by McClel-
lan never came to an issue. Some time later, on the eve
of his Seven Days' Retreat, the " Young Napoleon," still
hedging against failure, telegraphed to Stanton : —
" The rebel force is stated at 200,000, including Jack-
son and Beauregard. I shall have to contend against
vastly superior odds, if these reports be true. But this
army will do all in the power of men to hold their posi-
tion and repulse any attack.
" I regret my great inferiority in numbers, but feel that
I am in no way responsible for it, as I have not failed
to represent repeatedly the necessity of reinforcements ;
that this was the decisive point, and that all the available
means of the government should be concentrated here. I
will do all that a general can do with the splendid army
I have the honor to command, and, if it is destroyed
by overwhelming numbers, can at least die with it and
share its fate.
" But if the result of the action, which will probably
occur to-morrow or within a short time, is a disaster, the
responsibility cannot be thrown on my shoulders ; it must
rest where it belongs." ^"^
The President's reply was a trifle firmer, though not
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 385
less kind than previous messages with which he had sought
to encourage this weak-kneed campaigner. Your despatch,
he wrote, " suggesting the probability of your being over-
whelmed by 200,000, and talking of where the responsi-
bility will belong, pains me very much. I give you all I
can, and act on the presumption that you will do the best
you can with what you have ; while you continue ungen-
erously, I think, to assume that I could give you more if
I would. I have omitted and shall omit no opportunity
to send you reinforcements whenever I possibly can." ^^
But such assurances were in vain. Neither fair words
nor additional troops — the administration had responded
from time to time with both — served to mollify McClel-
lan's rancor. On the contrary, they seemed to act merely
as water upon his mill, for he went right on grinding out
more complaints.
Amidst the bloodshed and disaster of the " Seven
Days " that followed, the General's truculence, as has
been set forth in a previous chapter, reached its shrillest
note. At midnight, after the defeat of Gaines's Mill, he
despatched a report of the battle to Secretary Stanton.
Judging him by this production, we should say in passing,
that McClellan, whatever may have been his habitual
bravery, was not then eminently endowed with 12 P. m.
courage. The message closed with these extraordinary
lines : —
" In addition to what I have already said, I only wish
to say to the President that I think he is wrong in regard-
ing me as ungenerous when I said that my force was too
weak. I merely intimated a truth which to-day has been
too plainly proved. If, at this instant, I could dispose of
ten thousand (10,000) fresh men, I could gain the victory
to-morrow.
" I know that a few thousand more men would have
changed this battle from a defeat to a victory. As it is,
the government must not and cannot bold me responsible
for the result.
386 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
"I feel too earnestly to-night. I have seen too many-
dead and wounded comrades to feel otherwise than that
the government has not sustained this army. If you do
not do so now, the game is lost.
" If I save this army now, I tell you plainly that I owe
no thanks to you or to any other persons in Washington.
" You have done your best to sacrifice this army." ^"^
Insubordination could go no further. It may be doubted
whether any general ever before sent from stricken field
such a message to his government. Even after making
due allowance for the terrible strain under which McClel-
lan must have labored when he wrote the despatch, such
insolence seems unpardonable. Though directed at Stan-
ton, the stroke was manifestly meant for Lincoln as well,
with an eye, perhaps, to its effect upon the onlooking
public in the background.^"^ How the blow was softened
as it passed through the War Department telegraph office
has already been told. Yet enough of the message, as we
have seen, reached the General's superiors to carry home
his accusation that they had failed to sustain the army,
and were responsible for its defeat. Any other President
would probably have made short work of the insult ; but
Lincoln here, as elsewhere, was incapable of turning into
a personal affair what vitally concerned the welfare of
the nation. His self-surrender appears to have been as
complete in the one direction as was McClellan's egotism
in the other. The President's anxious thoughts were fixed
upon the Army of the Potomac, not upon its General or
himself. For between the lines of this wild denunciation
he read panic and disaster. It appeared to him that
nothing but the imminent danger of losing the whole
army — and such a catastrophe had lately been more than
hinted at — would account for McClellan's bitter words.
Overlooking them entirely, Lincoln put all his heart into
this reply, which was speedily placed on the wire : —
" Save your army, at all events. Will send reinforce-
ments as fast as we can. Of course they cannot reach
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 387
you to-day, to-morrow, or next day. I have not said you
were ungenerous for saying you needed reinforcements.
I thought you were ungenerous in assuming that I did
not send them as fast as I could. I feel any misfortune to
you and your army quite as keenly as you feel it yourself.
If you have had a drawn battle, or a repulse, it is the price
we pay for the enemy not being in Washington. We pro-
tected Washington, and the enemy concentrated on you.
Had we stripped Washington, he would have been upon
us before the troops could have gotten to you. Less than
a week ago you notified us that reinforcements were leav-
ing Richmond to come in front of us. It is the nature of
the case, and neither you nor the government is to blame.
Please tell at once the present condition and aspect of
things." i<«
Before McClellan could relieve the President's anxiety,
his communications were cut, and the Army of the Poto-
mac was again fighting its way to a safe haven at Harri-
son's Landing. Here the Peninsular campaign presently
came to an end, one of the costliest failures of the war.
On what ground, if any, could this lack of success be
charged against the administration? Was it true that
Lincoln and his advisers were jealous of McClellan, and
conspired to destroy him, together with his army, by
withholding reenf orcements ? Of the General's disfavor
in certain governmental quarters, there can be no doubt.
Before the opening of the Peninsular campaign he had
lost standing, as we have seen, with many of the strong
men by whom the President was surrounded. But we
have also seen how loyally Lincoln stood by the com-
mander of his choice against all comers ; how he sup-
ported him, moreover, with " good measure, pressed down,
and shaken together, and running over," through the de-
lays and disappointments of the winter. Taking sides
with neither McClellanites nor anti-McClellanites, — for
unhappily this had become a matter of factions, — the
President viewed every question as it arose, with an eye
388 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
single to the preservation of the Union. Even the appeal
to Cassar that the General's military fame would become
a menace to his superior's tenure of office had failed in
its purpose. When one of Lincoln's friends warned him
of McClellan's reputed ambition to reach the White
House, the President answered : —
" I am perfectly willing, if he will only put an end to
this war." ^^
That, however, is just what the General's opponents
believed him incapable of doing. Their distrust of him,
need we add, was deepened by his deliberate attempt to
carry off down the Chesapeake troops which, under the
Chief Magistrate's orders, should have been left to guard
Washington. Nevertheless, McClellan's claim that these
leaders tried to compass his defeat on the Peninsula is
as absurd as it is unfounded. Such treason could have
been accomplished through only one of two men in the
government — Lincoln or Stanton.
The Secretary of War, despite his occasional outbursts
of indignation over the General's course, gave the Army
of the Potomac, as far as the records show, conscientious
support ; ^^ and the discussions on this subject that have
outlived the war furnish no substantial proofs to the con-
trary. While recriminations were at their height, more-
over, during the summer of 1862, a calm, straightforward
statement made by Mr. Lincoln, at a public meeting,
obviously placed the matter in its proper light.
" There has been a very widespread attempt," said he,
" to have a quarrel between General McClellan and the
Secretary of War. Now, I occupy a position that enables
me to observe that these two gentlemen are not nearly so
deep in the quarrel as some pretending to be their friends.
General McClellan's attitude is such that, in the very
selfishness of his nature, he cannot but wish to be success-
ful, and I hope he will ; and the Secretary of War is in
precisely the same situation. If the military commanders
in the field cannot be successful, not only the Secretary of
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 389
War, but myself — for the time being the master of them
both — cannot but be failures. I know General McClellan
wishes to be successful, and I know he does not wish it
any more than the Secretary of War for him, and both
of them together no more than I wish it. Sometimes we
have a dispute about how many men General McClellan
has had, and those who would disparage him say that he
has had a very large number, and those who would dis-
parage the Secretary of War insist that General McClel-
lan has had a very small number. The basis for this is,
there is always a wide difference, and on this occasion
perhaps a wider one than usual, between the grand total
on McClellan's rolls and the men actually fit for duty ;
and those who would disparage him talk of the grand
total on paper, and those who would disparage the Secre-
tary of War talk of those at present fit for duty. General
McClellan has sometimes asked for things that the Secre-
tary of War did not give him. General McClellan is not
to blame for asking for what he wanted and needed, and
the Secretary of War is not to blame for not giving when
he had none to give. And I say here, as far as I know,
the Secretary of War has withheld no one thing at any
time in my power to give him. I have no accusation
against him. I believe he is a brave and able man, and
I stand here, as justice requires me to do, to take upon
myself what has been charged on the Secretary of War,
as withholding from him." ^^
This narrows the question down, and properly so, to
how the President treated McClellan on the Peninsula.
The army of invasion, according to the original esti-
mate of its commander, was to comprise " from 110,000
to 140,000 " troops. War Department returns show that
121,500 men were transported, at the outset, to Fortress
Monroe. McClellan may consequently be said to have
started on his campaign with an effective force equal at
least to the minimum number that he had required. Not-
withstanding this, Lincoln strained every effort, from
390 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
beginning to end, in his anxiety to satisfy the General's
strident calls for more. When McClellan, a few days
after his arrival on the Peninsula, despatched that he
would hold himself " responsible for the results " of the
campaign, if he could have Franklin's division, the 12,000
men constituting that splendid body were immediately
forwarded. They failed, as we know, to be utilized in
time ; but the President was not deterred by the disap-
pointment from meeting further demands, to the best of
his ability. In fact, his cooperation later drew from the
insatiable General this acknowledgment : —
" I am glad to learn that you are pressing forward re-
inforcements so vigorously. I shall be in perfect readiness
to move forward and take Richmond the moment McCall
reaches here and the ground will admit the passage of
artillery." ^"^
McCall's 10,000 men duly arrived. McClellan's pro-
mises, however, as in the case of Franklin, went by default.
He now wanted the rest of McDowell's detained corps,
from which these two divisions had been detached. That
command, after starting several times to join him, was
each time recalled to the defence of the Capital. It
never reached McClellan, and finally participated, despite
McDowell's own earnest protests, in the government's
faulty tactics against Jackson in the Shenandoah valley.""
Other reenforcements had, however, been sent to the Army
of the Potomac, so that by the middle of June, over 39,000
men were, according to McClellan's own official returns,
added to his original force. In brief, as may be seen at a
glance over the figures, there were enough Union troops,
from first to last, on the Peninsula, to take Richmond.
At every point throughout the campaign the northern
forces outnumbered — and at times heavily so — their
southern foes ; but McClellan failed to bring his entire
strength into action. He fought battle after battle with
inferior numbers, while unemployed divisions stood idle
within striking distance. The conclusion is inevitable.
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 391
This commander, who kept the wires hot with demands
for reenforcements, and accused the administration of
treason because he did not get as many as he wanted, had
more men than he knew how to use. Napoleon's opinion
that the Archduke Charles and he, himself, were the only
men of his day who could maneuver one hundred thousand
troops, would evidently not have been modified in favor of
his American namesake. McClellan's errors under this
head, however, were more than once redeemed by the con-
duct of the army, which he had so effectively disciplined.
Officers and men fought their way from Williamsburg to
Malvern Hill like heroes. The story of the Peninsular
campaign, which, by the way, it does not lie within the
scope of this work to tell, abounds in brilliant exploits.
Twice, perhaps three times, the Confederate Capital
seemed within the Union grasp. A Grant, a Sherman, a
Thomas, or a Hooker would have marched into Richmond ;
but the talented McClellan, without initiative or dash in
the field, retreated from his victories. Through the cloud
of controversy, in which he and his friends have tried
to envelop these operations, looms the rigid truth that
McClellan was again outgeneraled. What lions he had
to slay were not in far-away Washington. They blocked
his path right on the Peninsula, in the shape successively
of three able Confederate commanders — J. Bankhead
Magruder, Joseph E. Johnston, and Robert E. Lee.
McClellan's attempt to shift the blame for his failure
upon Stanton, Chase, and the rest was bad enough —
to hint, even, that the President desired his defeat was
monstrous. Any formal refutation of such a charge would
almost seem insulting to the memory of the most magnan-
imous public man of his time. Yet this topic should not
be dismissed without reference, at least, to Lincoln's ear-
nest interest in the campaign. His yearning for success
on the Peninsula was pathetic. Moving, like the central
figure of some old Greek tragedy, through the shadow of
successive misfortunes, he seems to have entered into every
292 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
conflict, though he could not be actually seen to take part
in any. And at the close of these three harrowing months,
as the action reaches its climax, we find him in an agony
of disappointment, second not even to that of McClellan,
himself. " When the Peninsula campaign terminated
suddenly at Harrison's Landing," said the President to a
friend, " I was as nearly inconsolable as I could be and
live." ^" Indeed, only one whose soul was bound up in
the hope that McClellan might win, would have sent the
General such messages, or have suffered such answers, as
passed between them. A father advising, chiding, encour-
aging, by turns, a wilful son could not have treated this
rasping officer with more uniform indulgence. We rise
from a reading of their correspondence with a nicer per-
ception of the President's nobility of character — a keener
admiration than ever of his rugged strength. Strong
enough to hold McClellan where he had put him, in the
teeth of perhaps as powerful an opposition as has ever
been massed against a commander ; strong enough to
ignore the signs which foreshadowed McClellan's political
rivalry ; and strong, above all, in the perfect self-control
with which he met McClellan's unmerited reproaches,
Lincoln manifested, throughout this trying period, how
high he deserves to rank among the masters of men.
With the arrival of the army at Harrison's Landing,
fresh perplexities beset the President. He was not ready
yet to give up its commander, though that officer had
hardly a friend left at court. Stirred by the fruitless
sacrifices of the campaign, McClellan's opponents now re-
doubled their efforts to bring about his removal. In their
prejudiced eyes, the embattled march to the James Kiver,
which he had described as a change of base, was a retreat,
pure and simple. Whatever the movement may be called,
— it partook, in fact, of the nature of both, — Lincoln
recognized how skilful had been those defensive oper-
ations on the way, that finally saved the army from de-
struction. Hence there were no reproaches from the White
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 393
House for the unsuccessful General. When he announced,
on the 2d of July, that his entire force had reached the
protection of the gunboats, the President, haggard with
suspense, telegraphed : —
" I am satisfied that yourself, officers, and men have
done the best you could. All accounts say better fighting
was never done. Ten thousand thanks for it." ^^^
As if not content with this praise, which McClellan
himself, by the way, termed " kind," the General entered
a special plea for more, after the following fashion : —
" Never did such a change of base, involving a retro-
grade movement, and under incessant attacks from a most
determined and vastly more numerous foe, partake so little
of disorder. . . . When all the circumstances of the case
are known, it will be acknowledged by all competent
judges, that the movement just completed by this army
is unparalleled in the annals of war. Under the most
difficult circumstances, we have preserved our trains, our
guns, our material, and, above all, our honor." ^^^
To which Mr. Lincoln promptly responded : —
" Be assured, the heroism and skill of yourself, officers,
and men, is and forever will be appreciated. If you can
hold your present position, we shall hive the enemy
yet." "^
But to " hive the enemy," which had driven the Grand
Army of the Potomac to cover, required, McClellan as-
serted, heavy reenf orcements. " I need 50,000 more men,"
he had telegraphed the day before his arrival at Harri-
son's Landing, "and with them I will retrieve our for-
tunes." ^^'
To which the President had made one of his character-
istic replies. " Your despatch of Tuesday morning," it read,
" induces me to hope your army is having some rest. In
this hope allow me to reason with you a moment. When
you ask for 50,000 men to be promptly sent you, you surely
labor under some gross mistake of fact. Recently you sent
papers showing your disposal of forces made last spring
394 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
for the defence of Washington and advising a return to
that plan. I find it included in and about Washington
75,000 men. Now, please be assured I have not men
enough to fill that very plan by 15,000. All of Fremont's
in the valley, all of Banks's, all of McDowell's not with
you, and all in Washington, taken together, do not ex-
ceed, if they reach, 60,000. With Wool and Dix added to
those mentioned, I have not, outside of your army, 75,000
men east of the mountains. Thus the idea of sending you
50,000, or any other considerable force, promptly, is sim-
ply absurd. If, in your frequent mention of responsibility,
you have the impression that I blame you for not doing
more than you can, please be relieved of such impression.
I only beg that in like manner you will not ask impossi-
bilities of me. If you think you are not strong enough to
take Richmond just now, I do not ask you to try just now.
Save the army, material and personal, and I will strengthen
it for the offensive again as fast as I can. The Governors
of eighteen States offer me a new levy of 300,000, which
I accept." ^^^ There can be no doubt of Lincoln's inten-
tion, when this letter was written, to support McClellan
in an early resumption of his campaign.
From every available source, meanwhile, from Hunter
at Hilton Head, Burnside at New Berne, Halleck at
Corinth, and certain commands around Washington, de-
tachments were ordered to the Peninsula. Most of these,
it should be said, for one reason or another, never reached
McClellan. Yet had they all come, his appetite would
probably still have remained unappeased. In less than
three days from the time of that promise to " retrieve our
fortunes " with " 50,000 more men," he wrote : —
" To accomplish the great task of capturing Richmond
and putting an end to this rebellion reinforcements should
be sent to me rather much over than much less than
100,000 men." '''
The difference in these figures puzzled Mr. Lincoln, as
did the more startling statement, in the same despatch : —
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 395
" It is of course impossible to estimate as yet our losses,
but I doubt whether there are to-day more than 50,000
men with their colors."
That the army had shrunk to anything like the extent
thus indicated was inconceivable to the President. He
could not hope to learn the facts, however, from McClel-
lan's inconsistent messages ; nor was he disposed, in view
of the partisan feelings that had been aroused, to rely on
the reports of others. There appeared to be no alterna-
tive for him but to judge of the situation at Harrison's
Landing with his own eyes. So, on the 8th of July, Lin-
coln paid McClellan a visit.
The President stayed less than twenty-four hours, but
he spent the time to advantage. A hasty inspection of
the army, and conferences with its principal officers, suffi-
ciently revealed the condition of affairs. McClellan's
60,000 men had unaccountably become 86,500."* The
days of miracle-workers were past, so no one suggested
that he had, like the King of the Myrmidons, recruited
his ranks overnight from among certain insects, which
plagued the camp on the banks of the James. But what
troubled Lincoln more than this discrepancy between the
commander's understated figures and his actual strength
was the large number of soldiers, a host in itself, still
missing from the ranks. " Sending men to that army,"
he once said, " is like shoveling fleas across a barn-yard
— not half of them get there."^^^ And shortly after this
visit, the President, with official returns before him, thus
summed up his conclusions on the subject, in a despatch
to McClellan : —
" I am told that over 160,000 men have gone into your
army on the Peninsula. When I was with you the other
day, we made out 86,500 remaining, leaving 73,500 to be
accounted for. I believe 23,500 will cover all the killed,
wounded, and missing in all your battles and skirmishes,
leaving 50,000 who have left otherwise. Not more than
6,000 of these have died, leaving 45,000 of your army
396 LINXOLN. MASTER OF MEN
still alire and not with it. I believe half or two thirds of
them are fit for duty to-day. Have you any more perfect
knowledge of this than I have ? If I am right, and you
had these men with you. you could go into Richmond in
the next three days. How can they be got to you, and
how can they be prevented from getting away in such
numbers for the future ? "' ^'
MeClellan's reply was hardly satisfactory. He felt con-
fident, he said, that so many men had not reached him ;
but he admitted that there were 40.000 absentees, over
34.000 of whom were absent by authority. His explana-
tion of how this surprising number got away on leave,
during the very period in which he clamored most des-
perately for additional troops, was far from adequate.^
Xor did Mr. Lincoln take much comfort in the admission,
'* If I could receive back the absentees and cotdd get my
sick men up, I would need but small reinforcements to
enable me to take Eichmond."^ Unfortunately, '* ifs "
capture no citadels. So we presentiy find McQellan tele-
graphing to the President, as of old. *'It appears mani-
festiy to be our policy to concentrate here everything we
can possibly spare from less important points." ^ etc., etc.
And thus his drearv nag^ging: continued to the end of the
story : but we look in vain, at about this juncture, for
more of Lincoln's soothing answers. That they ceased
after his return from Harrison's Landing is significant.
During this visit, brief as it was, the President had
learned several thing's besides the real size of the armv.
Not the least of these was the size of McClellan's self-
esteem. That officer, several weeks before, while in the
midst of the Peninsular campaign, when every thought
should have been fixed on the task before him. had tele-
graphed to !Mr. Lincoln for permission to submit his
•• views as to the present state of military affairs through-
out the whole country," requesting, at the same time,
detailed information about the troops not under his
orders.^ The President had replied : —
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 397
"If it would not divert too mucli of your time and
attention from the army under your immediate command,
I would be glad to have your views as to the present
state of military affairs throughout the whole country, as
you say you would be glad to give them. I would rather
it should be by letter than by telegraph, because of the
better chance of secrecy. As to the numbers and positions
of the troops not under your command in Virginia and
elsewhere, even if I could do it with accuracy, which I
cannot, I would rather not transmit either by telegraph or
letter, because of the chances of its reaching the enemy.
I would be very glad to talk with you, but you cannot
leave your camp, and I cannot well leave here." ^-^
The reproof was too delicately hinted. McClellan de-
ferred the execution of his purpose, but he did not give
it up. As soon as Mr. Lincobi arrived at Harrison's
Landing, the General hastened on board the steainer to
receive him. When they had been together in the cabin
for a short time, McClellan handed the President a letter.
Having read it through, Lincoln, with some such expres-
sion as " AU right," put the document into his pocket, and
made no reference to it during the rest of his visit.
This reticence is not to be wondered at. In that letter
a defeated commander tried to impose upon his President
an entire system of civil, as well as military, doctrine.
Assuming, after the manner of Mr. Seward, in a no less
remarkable communication, that Lincoln lacked a policy,
McClellan undertook to supply him with one, " cover-
ing the whole ground of our national trouble." A large
contract, to be sure, for a soldier whose strategy had just
ended in a pitiable failure, and whose neglect of things po-
litical, all his life, had usually kept him from performing
even the simplest duties of citizenship. Yet McClellan
seems to have appreciated, at least, the rhetorical demands
of the situation. His letter is a marvel. The exordium
solemnly pleads the privilege of speaking freely, because
the army under him might be overwhelmed, any moment,
398 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
by the enemy in its front, thougb. that enemy — let us
whisper — was, at this very time, turning back to Rich-
mond. Wherefore his conclusion, as artfully calculated
to disarm criticism, also becomes a mere flourish of lan-
guage. "I may be on the brink of eternity," it reads,
*' and as I hope for forgiveness from my Maker, I have
written this letter with sincerity towards you, and from
love for my country." The body of the lecture — for that
in fact it is — tells the President what he must do to
save the Union ; while a sweeping criticism of what he
has done is written large between the lines. After adjur-
ing Lincoln never to abandon the fight, McClellan says,
" Let neither military disaster, political faction, nor for-
eign war shake your settled purpose to enforce the equal
operation of the laws of the United States upon the people
of every State." Advising against the subjugation of the
southern people, he urges that there " should not be at
all a war upon population, but against armed forces and
political organizations. Neither confiscation of property,
political executions of persons, territorial organization of
States, or forcible abolition of slavery should be contem-
plated for a moment." Then the President is admonished
that " military arrests should not be tolerated, except in
places where active hostilities exist ; and oaths not re-
quired by enactments — constitutionally made — should
be neither demanded nor received." Here follow some
confused suggestions favoring compensated emancipation
of slaves, in certain States, " upon grounds of military
necessity," tacked to the stipulation that " military power
should not be allowed to interfere with the relations of
servitude." Unless these principles are made known, he
adds, " the effort to obtain requisite forces will be almost
hopeless." But " a declaration of radical views, especially
upon slavery," warns the oracle, " will rapidly disintegrate
our present armies." His final piece of advice, still strik-
ingly reminiscent of the Seward memorandum, reads : —
" In carrying out any system of policy which you may
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 399
form, you will require a commander-in-chief of the army,
— one who possesses your confidence, understands your
views, and who is competent to execute your orders by
directing the military forces of the nation to the accom-
plishment of the objects by you proposed. I do not ask
that place for myself. I am willing to serve you in such
position as you may assign me, and I will do so as faith-
fully as ever subordinate served superior." ^
Had Julius Caesar refused the kingly crown by mail,
he would have employed, perhaps, some such phraseology.
The Harrison's Landing letter was broader in scope,
to raise a parliamentary objection, than the petition on
which it rested — so much broader, in fact, as to be out
of order. Such an utterance from a victorious general
would have been inept, from a defeated one it was imper-
tinent. " You know," McClellan once wrote to his wife,
" that I have a way of attending to most other things than
my own affairs," and the avowal applies here with par-
ticular force. An adept in military lore, he must have
recognized, if any one did, how improper it was for a gen-
eral in the field to meddle with purely political questions.
Yet he plunged into the mazes of this forbidden domain,
foreign alike to his office and his experience, under the
honest delusion, apparently, that Lincoln needed his guid-
ance there. " I have written a strong, frank letter to the
President," McClellan informs the lady at home. " If he
acts upon it, the country will be saved." ^^ But the silence
with which Mr. Lincoln received his lesson kept the Gen-
eral guessing. " I do not know," he wrote her, after the
President's departure, " to what extent he has profited by
his visit ; not much, I fear. I will enclose with this a
copy of a letter I handed him, which I would be glad to
have you preserve carefully as a very important record." ^^*
This anxiety about his " record," by the way, cropped out
so often with McClellan as to give one the impression of a
man who was building up a case. Indet J, however deeply
he might have been engrossed in saving the country, he
400 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
never failed to save the evidence by which he expected,
some day, to prove how hard the administration had made
the task for him ; and of the documents so cherished the
most important, beyond a question, was this Harrison's
Landing letter. Under the form of advising the Presi-
dent, it condemned, with peculiar emphasis, his attitude
toward the war; while the whole spirit of the production,
as we shall see, made its author, later, when it became
public property, the logical standard-bearer of those vari-
ous discontented elements which fused for the purpose of
defeating Lincoln's reelection. There is no good reason,
however, to doubt the sincerity of the letter. It appears
to have correctly expressed McClellan's ultra-conservative
views. Nor are we disposed to dispute the claim of his
editor that it was composed without the aid of the poll-
ticians.^^^ But how about their influence in the matter?
The friendly overtures of prominent Democrats, on the
one hand, and the hostility of Radical Republicans, on
the other, must have given McClellan's mind a distinctly
political bias. If he did not openly respond to proffers
of party leadership, he felt called upon, apparently, to
declare himself concerning party questions, in a form
available for future reference. At all events, the writing
of the famous letter when his military fortunes were on
the ebb looks decidedly, whatever else may be said on the
subject, like the proceeding which a certain astute politi-
cian of later distinction described in a memorable phrase,
as casting an anchor to windward.
Of course the President took no public notice of the sin-
gular document which he brought home in his pocket. So
far was he from heeding the General's solemn warnings
— threats, some writers have called them — that, within
eight days after his return, Mr. Lincoln had determined
upon emancipation, and had signed the drastic Confisca-
tion Act.^^° In one particular, however, he seemingly
adopted McClellan's counsel. The four months that had
elapsed since the Chief Executive and his war minister
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 401
undertook to handle the armies in the field, without a mili-
tary expert in supreme command, had left the President,
at least, in no doubt as to the unwisdom of the step. For
some weeks he had contemplated the selection of a general-
in-chief, and almost immediately after the historic lesson
at Harrison's Landing, he decided upon the man ; but to
his mentor's chagrin, the appointment read, " Henry W.
Halleck," not " George B. McClellan." ^^i How deep this
cut may be inferred from one of the little private notes
to Mrs. McClellan. " You ask me," it ran, " whether I
advised the President to appoint Halleck. The letter of
which I sent you a copy is all that ever passed on the
subject, either directly or indirectly ; not another word
than is there written. We never conversed on the subject.
I was never informed of his views or intentions, and even
now have not been officially informed of the appointment.
I only know it through the newspapers. In all these
things the President and those around him have acted so
as to make the matter as offensive as possible." ^^^ Hardly
less agreeable was one of the new Chief's earliest duties.
On the day after his arrival at Washington, ^^^ Mr. Lin-
coln hurried him to the camp on the Peninsula, in order
that he might determine, by personal observation, what
was best to be done with the Army of the Potomac.
Halleck found McClellan eager for a new campaign
against Richmond, along the line of the river on which
the column rested. There, according to its commander, —
and later events corroborated him, — " the fate of the
Union should be decided." With all the facts before us,
we now realize that McClellan's plan was correct. But
who could have guessed it from his faulty data ? For the
evil genius of miscalculation, which had pursued him from
the beginning, still bedeviled his counsels. He told the
General-in-Chief that the force opposed to him outnum-
bered the Army of the Potomac by over 100,000 men.
The figures were out of all reason. This imaginary pre-
ponderance of gray -coats might perhaps be accounted for,
402 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
in a way, by the vapors rising above tbe Chickabominy
swamps. The squadrons of spectral troopers, that from
time to time sweep over the Scotch moors, are no less real
than were those 100,000 Confederates. As a matter of fact,
the advantage lay on the northern side by some 12,800
men.^^* This Halleck, of course, did not know. He had to
decide, by the light of the figures laid before him, whether
such additional troops — 20,000 in all — as the President
had authorized him to promise, would constitute a suf-
ficient reenforcement. If this increase, so ran Mr. Lin-
coln's instructions, enabled McClellan to operate against
Richmond with a strong probability of success, the Penin-
sular campaign was to be renewed ; if not, the army was
to be withdrawn, and united with General John Pope's
recently formed command, in front of Washington."^
Anxious as McClellan was to go forward, he would not
say that the chances, even when improved by those 20,000
men, were in his favor. He declared himseK " willing to
try it," but dwelling upon the imaginary odds, on the op-
posing side, he pleaded for heavier reenforcements. These
Halleck could not give. And what he learned from the
other officers, whom he consulted at Harrison's Landing,
hardly improved the outlook ; for they were about evenly
divided in their opinions as to whether the army should
advance or retreat. Under these circumstances, it is not
to be wondered at that the General-in-Chief, upon his
return to Washington, added his voice to the counsels
of the powerful group — soldiers, cabinet ministers, and
representatives, who were urging the President to recall
McClellan. That officer now lost the last vestige of his
influence with Mr. Lincoln, and the President no longer
hesitated to give the fateful order.
McClellan's instructions to return from the Peninsula
caused him, as he said, " the greatest pain " he had " ever
experienced." The bitterness of his mortification at this
inglorious finish to the campaign was heightened not a
little by a sincere belief that the contemplated movement
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 403
would be a blunder. He protested against the retreat
in a despatch which has been deservedly praised. Still,
Halleck's reply, it must be said, seemed equally cogent ;
and what was more to the purpose, it directed his subor-
dinate to obey orders, " with all possible promptness." ^^^
Whether McClellan did so or not is one of the doubtful
questions which have grown out of his much debated
doings. It took him somewhat over three weeks to re-
move the troops with their material from the James to
the Potomac. " Gross mismanagement," said one contem-
porary critic in the Army of the Potomac. " No human
power could prevent delays in such a delicate operation,"
said another.^^^ Wide as this difference of opinion was, it
still divides historians of the Peninsular campaign; but
happily there is no need of rehearsing the whole stale
controversy here. He would be a wise man, moreover,
who could, with the information now available, determine
just what degree of blame attaches to the General com-
manding. That he appeared culpably slow, at the time,
to Halleck and the administration, is not surprising. In
their feverish anxiety to reenforce Pope, against whom
the enemy was massing, they doubtless expected too
much of McClellan ; while he, eating his heart out with
disappointment, failed to respond in that spirit of single-
minded obedience to which they were clearly entitled.
Halleck showered him with telegraphic appeals to hasten.
He invariably answered, in effect, that the movement was
progressing with all reasonable despatch, but he contin-
ued his protests. "It is not possible," declared a typical
message, " for any one to place this army where you wish
it, ready to move, in less than a month. If Washington
is in danger now, this army can scarcely arrive in time to
save it. It is in much better position to do so from here
than from Acquia." ^^* Once, indeed, he came dangerously
near to expressing these protests in action. Just a week
after the order to withdraw, a letter meant for the eyes of
his wife told a singular story.
404 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
" I hope to be ready to-morrow afternoon," it ran, " to
move forward in the direction of Richmond. I will try-
to catch or thrash Longstreet, and then, if the chance
offers, follow into Richmond while they are lamming away
at Pope. It is in some respects a desperate step, but it
is the best I can do for the nation just now; and I would
rather even be defeated than retreat without an effort to
relieve Washington in the only way at all possible. . . .
I half apprehend that they will be too quick for me in
Washington, and relieve me before I have the chance of
making the dash. If so, well and good. I am satisfied
that the dolts in Washington are bent on my destruction,
if it is possible for them to accomplish it." A postscript
to this letter added : —
" I received a very harsh and unjust telegram from
Halleck this morning. . . . Under the circumstances I
feel compelled to give up the idea of my intended attack
upon Richmond, and must retrace my steps." ^^^
The fate of eminent commanders who have disobeyed
under somewhat similar circumstances may have come to
the fore in McClellan's well-stocked recollections of mili-
tary history ; or the despatch, which had so nettled him,
may have brought the General to his senses. It read : —
"The enemy is crossing the Rapidan in large force.
They are fighting General Pope to-day; there must be
no further delay in your movements. That which has
already occurred was entirely unexpected and must be
satisfactorily explained. Let not a moment's time be lost,
and telegraph me daily what progress you have made in
executing the order to transfer your troops." ""^
Though McClellan complied, he answered sharply
enough. For, by this time, Halleck, and Pope as well,
had been relegated to his black book. They were in
accord with Lincoln and Stanton. That — if there had
been no other reasons — was enough to render them con-
temptible, in his eyes. He took no pains, moreover, to
hide the feeling ; while his private correspondence evinces
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 405
how strained relations had become between the adminis-
tration and the captain of its principal army. If McClel-
lan moved, as he claimed, " with the utmost rapidity
possible," appearances certainly failed to do him justice.
So far, indeed, had they gone against him, during these
weeks of suspense and recrimination, that when at last he
got his troops back to the Potomac, he was, as far as his
superiors were concerned, the most discredited officer in
the whole command.
McClellan's removal now seemed inevitable. But who
should succeed him ? To this question the President gave
prayerful consideration, for upon its answer might hinge
the fate of the Union. He looked about him, as indeed he
had been looking many anxious weeks, to find some sign
of the coming man. His quest was thus far, however,
in vain. " A great captain," said one of the old drama-
tists, " is the chiefest gift of Providence to a nation." He
might have added, " and the rarest." At all events, the
Lord seemed to have withheld his bounty in this direction
from the people of the North. Two prominent Generals,
Ambrose E. Burnside, McClellan's intimate friend, and
Ethan Allen Hitchcock, a talented soldier on duty at the
War Department, are known to have in turn declined the
command. Both of them shrank from a post which they
deemed, not without reason, beyond their powers ; and
the field-marshal's batons still lay unrevealed in the camp-
chests of the few officers who really were equal to the
task. Until one of these great captains could be distin-
guished from among a host of epauleted heroes, Lincoln
did not see his way clear to McClellan's retirement. It
was when the matter presented this aspect, no doubt, that
Halleck promised the General command of all the forces
in Virginia, as soon as they should become united."^ At
the same time, McClellan's opponents, eager to get rid of
him at any price, proclaimed Pope the rising sun of the
army's hope ; and urged the President to appoint their
latest favorite to McClellan's place. This Mr. Lincoln
4o6 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
would gladly have done, but the new-comer, though he
had given a good account of himself in a limited western
field, had still to prove his mettle on the larger theater
of Virginian operations. So the President determined to
test Pope before letting go of McClellan ; and the man-
ner in which he set about this delicate proceeding was
peculiarly Lincoluian. McClellan should not be removed
from the Army of the Potomac, but the Army of the Po-
tomac should be removed from him. It was to be merged,
part by part, into the Army of Virginia, so that Pope
might fight the impending campaign before Washington,
at the head of the combined forces. If the new man won,
the problem of commanders would be solved ; if he lost,
the old chief would still be available.
This explains the anomalous situation in which McClel-
lan found himself, at Alexandria, during the closing days
of August. He had reminded Halleck, as soon as he
reached the Potomac, of that promise to place all the
troops under his orders ; but Halleck was too busy, per-
haps, to answer. Then he begged the President, as well
as the General-in-Chief, to have his status at least defined.
" Tell me what you wish me to do," pleaded the despatch
to Lincoln, " and I will do all in my power to accomplish
it. I wish to know what my orders and authority are. I
ask for nothing, but will obey whatever orders you give." ^^
In the President's brief answer this important question
was again ignored. It received no more attention, in fact,
than was vouchsafed to a request, which McClellan had
previously made, that " a handsome order " issue from
Washington, thanking the Army of the Potomac for its
services on the Peninsula. Lincoln was obviously in no
mood for tossing bouquets at McClellan. The President's
sole concern with the "Young Napoleon," at this time,
must have been to get his troops away from him in season
to reenforce Pope, whose second Bull Run campaign now
rapidly developed. Corps after corps was detached from
McClellan, amidst a cross-fire of impatient telegrams,
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 407
until, as he pathetically reported, every fighting man — to
the very guard around his camp — had gone.^^ Then at
last came the answer to those repeated requests for offi-
cial light on the eclipsed commander's position. "Gen-
eral McClellan," proclaimed an order from the War
Department, " commands that portion of the Army of
the Potomac that has not been sent forward to General
Pope's command." "^ This piece of seeming irony, in
which, however, we discern rather the sober operation of
Mr. Lincoln's plan, added not a little to McClellan 's
discomfiture. A spectacle for gods and men, the chief
so lately of a hundred thousand veterans sat idle in his
tent, stripped of all but a fleeting shadow of his splendid
authority. Declining to issue a countersign for this
mockery of an army, he bore himself with what dig-
nity his trying situation admitted of, until the cannon-
ading in a far-away battle echoed through the deserted
camp. Only a soldier can fathom the depths to which
that noise stirred McClellan. He telegraphed to Hal-
leck : —
" I cannot express to you the pain and mortification I
have experienced to-day in listening to the distant sound
of the firing of my men. As I can be of no further use
here, I respectfully ask that, if there is a probability of
the conflict being renewed to-morrow, I may be permitted
to go to the scene of battle with my staif, merely to be
with my own men, if nothing more ; they will fight none
the worse for my being with them. If it is not deemed
best to entrust me with the command even of my own
army, I simply ask to be permitted to share their fate on
the field of battle. Please reply to this to-night." ^*^
On the following day the General-in-Chief responded :
" I cannot answer without seeing the President, as
General Pope is in command, by his orders, of the
department." ^^
McClellan's humiliation was complete. He realized, we
venture to say, as nearly as any nineteenth century leader
4o8 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
could realize, how King Saul felt on awaking to find the
skirt of his robe cut off.
What especially chagrined McClellan was the destina-
tion of his troops. It must, indeed, have seemed hard that
the army, which his skilful and loving care had brought
to a high degree of effectiveness, should be marched away
from him to swell the forces of an obnoxious rival. For
in this light he regarded Pope. That officer had assumed
command with a flourish of trumpets and a rattle of innu-
endoes, aL which the whole Army of the Potomac, from
Major-General McClellan down to Private John Doe,
took grave oiTence.^^^ If, therefore, any lack of enthu-
siasm marked their manner of supporting him, it is not
surprising. iVrticles of War may impose obedience upon
a soldier, to the last ditch ; but the clause which shall
compel his affection for a commander has still to be de-
vised. That is, of course, the commander's lookout ; and
Pope, vigorous, gallant captain though he was, had tact-
lessly cut himself off from reaching the hearts of these
men. They had no confidence in him from the begin-
ning. Their opinion was probably summed up by Mc-
Clellan when he wrote in one of his private letters : —
" I see that the Pope bubble is likely to be suddenly
collapsed. Stonewall Jackson is after him, and the young
man who wanted to teach me the art of war will, in less
than a week, either be in full retreat or badly whipped." "*
Believing that " Mr. Pope," as he sometimes called
him, would inevitably be repulsed, McClellan, with a view
to protecting the Capital, had not forwarded his troops
from Alexandria as promptly as Halleck's urgent de-
spatches required. Part of the delay, to be sure, was
due to inadequate means of transportation, and ill-will
towards Pope in not an entirely negligible quantity ;
but the idea of a reserve for the defence of Washington
appears to have finally determined McClellan's course.
After a lively interchange of messages, he had appealed
from the Greneral-in-Chief to the President. This was
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 409
rank insubordination. Franklin's corps was kept marking
time, halfway on the road, and Pope was actually fight-
ing the Second Battle of Bull Run, when McClellan tele-
graphed to Lincoln : —
" I am clear that one of two courses should be adopted :
first, to concentrate all our available forces to open
communication with Pope ; second, to leave Pope to get
out of his scrape, and at once use all our means to make
the Capital perfectly safe. No middle course will now
answer." "^
The President immediately confirmed Halleck's order,^^"
and McClellan obeyed ; but obedience came too late. By
the time Franklin reached the scene of action. Pope,
severely defeated, was in retreat.
McClellan's phrase, "leave Pope to get out of his
scrape," was unfortunate. It appeared to confirm the
charges of treachery in the Army of the Potomac, that
were now showered upon the President. According to
these charges, McClellan's apathy in withdrawing from
the Peninsula had been duplicated at Alexandria ; he had
diverted most of his troops from Pope, while those who
did reach that officer gave him half-hearted service ; the
rank and file were demoralized by factious sympathy for
" Little Mac " ; his favorite lieutenants had dishonorably
failed the new commander, on the battle-field, and so forth,
through the whole catalogue of disloyalty. As many of
the stories came to Lincoln from Stanton, Halleck, or
Pope, they lost nothing in the telling. It is not strange,
therefore, that at last he too thought ill — if not indeed
the worst — of McClellan's conduct. " He has acted badly
towards Pope," said the President sadly, on the last day
of Second Bull Run ; " he really wanted him to fail." '^^
So impressed, in fact, was Mr. Lincoln with these reports
of disaffection, that when McCleUan, at Halleck's call,
presented himself in Washington, shortly after the battle,
nothing would content the President but a despatch from
the General to his friends in the Army of the Potomac,
4IO LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
asking them to give Pope their cordial support. Precisely
to what extent McClellan, McClellan's officers, or Mc-
Clellan's troops were remiss will probably never be known.
Out of their relation to this disastrous campaign grew the
most stubbornly contested military quarrel left over from
the war. Forty years of controversy have not brought the
discussion down to the final word, but they have sufficed
to work a reversal of our harshest judgments. Time,
passing soothing fingers over partisan animosities, leaves
us clear-eyed to see that McClellan, Porter, Griffin, and
the rest were guiltless — whatever may have been their
shortcomings — of the most serious charges laid at their
door. Nevertheless, during the closing days of August, in
the battle summer of 1862, every circumstance seemed to
condemn them ; and not a few of the leading men in
Washington shared Pope's opinion that " the greatest
criminal " of all was McClellan.
How far some members of the cabinet carried their in-
dignation was detailed in a previous chapter. We have
seen how they sought to bring about McClellan's dismissal
in disgrace from the army ; how fierce became the demand,
in certain other quarters, for his punishment, and how
signally all these efforts failed. Those who wanted to
crush him had still to reckon with Lincoln. That the
President would stand in their way seemed inexplicable.
Why should he interpose to save a general who had flouted
him, whose unsoldierly conduct had, to all appearances,
sacrificed a campaign, whose failures had embarrassed
the administration, and whose successes, if he achieved
any, might menace its very existence, at the polls? To
cashier McClellan, then, out of hand, would doubtless
have placed him under a cloud from which he could hardly
have emerged in time to trouble Lincoln's political peace
of mind. But the President, shrewd tactician though he
was, did not fight that way. In the crisis produced by the
disaster at Manassas, his thoughts were neither of revenge,
of discipline, nor yet of personal ambition. Towering
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 411
gaunt and hollow-eyed above the little-big men who clam-
ored around him, he saw through the fog of their intrigues
and recriminations the one thing needful to be done at
once. As soon as the retreating army reached the defences
of Washington, it would have to be faced about to protect
the Capital against the victorious Confederates. Who,
Lincoln asked himself, was to rally the dispirited and, in
fact, disorganized troops, — Halleck ? The General-in-
Chief had recently shirked lesser responsibilities ; and
when the news of Pope's overthrow reached headquarters,
he had, in a condition bordering on collapse, summoned
McClellan to his aid.^^^ No, Halleck was clearly not the
man. Pope ? — The trumpet upon which he had sounded
the advance so stridently, as he rode to the war, must have
been lost in the melee ; for he was returning without it.
The despondent tone of certain official despatches, as he
approached Washington, ^^^ to say nothing of his increased
unpopularity with the army, put him as plainly out of the
question. From that army, itself, the President received
his answer. Most of the officers and men who had been
on the Peninsula called for their old commander. They
trusted, indeed loved him with a devotion such as has
been lavished upon few generals. Caesar, Turenne, Conde,
Napier, Napoleon — all swayed the affections of their
armies amidst inspiring victories ; McClellan had won
the hearts of his soldiers without great triumphs, and,
remarkable to relate, he held their confidence in spite of
severe reverses. When to this is added that he had, thus
far, shown himself to be the most capable organizer and
best defensive officer on the Union side, we see the wis-
dom of what followed. Mr. Lincoln, brushing aside his
advisers, without even telling them his purpose, deter-
mined upon McClellan's reinstatement.
Early on the morning of September 2, the President,
accompanied by Halleck, went to McClellan's house, and
asked him to take command of all the returning troops,
for the defence of Washington. ^^^ The General promptly
412 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
assented. His courteous behavior during the interview
made it none the less trying to Mr. Lincoln, who, we re-
member, had but a few days before subjected McClellan
to a "sort of snubbing," as the President phrased it, with
a view to his dismissal as soon as a new general could be
found to take his place. It was somewhat humiliating,
therefore, to call upon him now for help. At the same
time, Lincoln, with unique foresight, had kept McClellan
in a position from which he might be recalled to the
command as easily as he had been deprived of it ; while
the President's bearing toward him, through all these
vexations, had rarely been otherwise than cordial. So the
General met his visitors fully halfway, and immediately
on their departure, entered upon his new duties, with all
the enthusiasm of which he was capable.
The restoration of McClellan was, as far as Lincoln's
civil supporters were concerned, the most unpopular act
of his administration. It aroused a storm of disapproval
that would have shaken a less masterful man, but the
President stood firm. The fiercest opposition, as we have
seen, was in his own political family ; and the turbulent
cabinet meeting which followed the appointment has
been fully described elsewhere. What Lincoln said to his
excited ministers, therefore, need not be repeated here.
He, himself, summarized it later, in these two pithy sen-
tences : —
" There is no one in the army who can man these forti-
fications and lick these troops of ours into shape half as
well as he can." " We must use the tools we have ; if he
cannot fight, himself, he excels in making others ready
to fight." '''
Such reasoning was unassailable, and McClellan's harsh-
est ministerial critics bowed to the President's will. When
that meeting adjourned, Mr. Lincoln had not only averted
a cabinet crisis, but he had, at the same time, strength-
ened his executive authority over all its members. How
different this was from his military relations, the Presi
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 413
dent realized keenly. Discussing his surrender of Sep-
tember 2, after the event, he confided to a friend that the
restoration of McClellan was the most painful duty of his
official life. " There has been," he said to another, " a
design, a purpose in breaking down Pope, without regard
to the consequences to the country, that is atrocious. It
is shocking to see and know this, but there is no remedy
at present. McClellan has the army with him." Pointing
out, moreover, in these private talks, how the General's
incessant faultfinding had impaired the confidence of the
troops in the administration, and how culpably that officer
had contributed, generally speaking, to the demoraliza-
tion which he was now counted upon to correct, Lincoln
conceded that his course in recalling McClellan was a
good deal like " curing the bite with the hair of the dog."
Yet during this brief period of panic, not to say insub-
ordination, the civil power, as the President explained,
seemed under military subjection ; and Commander-in-
Chief though he was, he could find no way out but that of
placing the factious commander again in the saddle. ^^^
The rapidity with which McClellan restored the morale
of his now delighted troops amply justified Lincoln's
course. It was not the President's purpose, however, to
entrust him with another campaign ; and the command
in the field was again offered to Burnside. That pheno-
menally modest officer declined the offer as before. De-
claring himself incompetent to lead so large a force, he
warmly repeated his opinion that McClellan " could com-
mand the Army of the Potomac better than any other
general in it." The question was still unsettled when news
came that Lee purposed crossing the Upper Potomac into
Maryland. To oppose him, Lincoln ordered an immediate
advance and, under the pressure of events, committed the
movement — what alternative had he ? — to McClellan.
" Again I have been called upon to save the country,"
wrote the General, in his grandiose style. " The case is
desperate, but with God's help I will try unselfishly to
414 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
do my best, and, if He wills it, accomplish the salvation
of the nation." ^" As McClellan departed for the front,
however, he disclosed a change of heart in one respect,
at least. " The feeling of the government towards me,"
reads a farewell telegram to his wife, " I am sure, is kind
and trusting. I hope, with God's blessing, to justify the
great confidence they now repose in me, and will bury the
past in oblivion." ^^^ His brief sojourn on the mourners'
bench had evidently been not without its chastening effect ;
but this submissive mood, as we shall see, wore off all too
quickly.
No sooner was McClellan well into the Maryland cam-
paign than his old quarrel with the administration broke
out afresh. He won the battles of South Mountain and
A ntietam, to his great credit be it said, with the men who,
less than three weeks before, had fled in defeat from the
very army which now gave way before them ,• but his ex-
cessive caution held him back from vigorously following
up an advantage that, in the grasp of a more intrepid
general, might have led to the total overthrow of the Con-
federate host. When he telegraphed, therefore, to Wash-
ington that Lee had been driven back over the Potomac
into Virginia, the President's joy was flecked with disap-
pointment. For Mr. Lincoln, in the hope of a decisive
campaign at last, had recently urged McClellan not to let
the enemy " get off without being hurt " ; ^^^ and his con-
gratulatory despatch after South Mountain had closed
with the entreaty, " Destroy the rebel army if possible." ^"^
That it was possible, even the General's military eulogists
for the most part concede. In fact, the Confederates were
several days later so badly shattered at Antietam, that it
needed but a single well-directed blow, within the follow-
ing twenty-four hours, to crush them.^^^ Yet McClellan
turned what should have been an overwhelming victory
into almost a drawn battle. Commanding three men to
Lee's two, he fatally overrated, as of old, his opponent's
strength, and allowed the adroit Southerner to escape, over
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 415
" a very deep and difficult ford," ^^^ without further damage.
Important as was McClellan's service to the Union in
heading off this invasion of the Northern States, his failure
to reap the full fruits of victory aroused indignant criti-
cism throughout the country. On every hand, men count-
ing the cost declared Antietam to have been the bloodiest
day of the war ; and aghast at its slaughter, they severely
blamed the Federal commander because what he did fell
so far short of what he might have done.
Those who desired McClellan's removal now besieged
the President with all their old-time vigor. Lincoln gave
them scant encouragement ; yet how closely he kept his
accounts with the General checked up may be gathered
from a few remarks made by him to one of the political
friends who urged that officer's dismissal.
" I am now," said he, " stronger with the Army of the
Potomac than McClellan. The supremacy of the civil
power has been restored, and the Executive is again mas-
ter of the situation. The troops know that if I made a
mistake in substituting Pope for McClellan, I was capable
of rectifying it by again trusting him. They know, too,
that neither Stanton nor I withheld anything from him
at Antietam, and that it was not the administration, but
their own former idol, who surrendered the just results
of their terrible sacrifices and closed the great fight as a
drawn battle, when had he thrown Porter's corps of fresh
men and other available troops upon Lee's army, he
would inevitably have driven it in disorder to the river
and captured most of it before sunset." ^^^
McClellan, it goes without saying, gave abundant rea-
sons for not seizing this golden opportunity. His troops,
we are told, were " overcome by fatigue," provisions,
forage, and ammunition had to be distributed, certain
divisions were " somewhat demoralized," reenforcements
were expected, there was no " absolute assurance of suc-
cess," and so on. Yet all this fails to explain why his
victorious force, in much better condition than the pitia-
41 6 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
bly ragged, half-starved army which it had just defeated,
could not pursue where Lee's war-worn soldiers fled. As
a matter of fact, fortune favored the Union arms, at this
juncture, in every respect but one — that of generalship.
McClellan insisted upon the necessity of reorganizing and
resting the army before advancing. His demands, more-
over, for fresh troops, equipments, supplies, and what not,
were painfully reminiscent of the delays that had brought
his previous campaign to naught. The impatience of the
government began to show itself again in the despatches
from headquarters, to which McClellan responded with
something of his former asperity. Consoling himself,
meanwhile, in familiar letters, as of old, he wrote home ;
" I am tired of fighting against such disadvantages,
and feel that it is now time for the country to come to my
help and remove these difficulties from my path. If my
countrymen will not open their eyes and assist themselves,
they must pardon me if I decline longer to pursue the
thankless avocation of serving them. ... I feel that I
have done all that can be asked in twice saving the
country. If I continue in its service, I have at least the
right to demand a guarantee that I shall not be inter-
fered with. I know I cannot have that assurance so long
as Stanton continues in the position of Secretary of War
and Halleck as General-in-Chief." ^^^
Yet the writer's persistent inaction after Antietam
rendered interference of some sort from Washington im-
perative. So, at all events, thought the President, as he
presented himself in McClellan's camp on October 1, a
fortnight from the day of the battle, to find out for him-
self where the trouble lay.
During this visit, which lasted three days, the General
found ample opportunity to defend his course. He flat-
tered himself that Lincoln — affable as ever — became
" fully satisfied " with what had been done. The Presi-
dent "more than once assured me," says McClellan, " that
he was fully satisfied with my whole course from the be-
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 417
ginning ; that the only fault he could possibly find was
that I was perhaps too prone to be sure that everything
was ready before acting, but that my actions were all
right when I started." ^^'^ But an anecdote related by one
of the presidential party throws rather a different light
upon the situation. Early on the morning of their second
day in camp, Lincoln took a stroll with his friend, the
Hon. O. M. Hatch of Illinois. As they stood upon the
summit of a near-by hill, and looked down over the city
of white tents, among which the men were beginning their
daily duties, the President, waving his hand toward the
scene, said in a low, earnest voice : —
" Hatch, Hatch, what is all this ? "
" Why, Mr. Lincoln," answered his companion, " this
is the Army of the Potomac."
The President hesitated a moment, and then said in a
louder tone : —
" No, Hatch, no. This is General McClellan's body-
guard." i««
How far Mr. Lincoln was from being satisfied may be
still further inferred from one of his first military orders
after returning to Washington. " The President directs,"
telegraphed Halleck on October 6, "that you cross the
Potomac and give battle to the enemy, or drive liim south.
Your army must move now, while the roads are good."^"
On the following day, to emphasize the urgency of imme-
diate action, the General-in-Chief wrote : —
" The country is becoming very impatient at the want
of activity of your army, and we must push it on. I am
satisfied that the enemy are falling back toward Rich-
mond. We must follow them and seek to punish them.
There is a decided want of legs in our troops. They
have too much immobility, and we must try to remedy
the defect." ^^ Still McClellan did not move. It was
partly to find out why, that the Confederate General,
" Jeb " Stuart, crossed the Potomac, with a division of
cavalry, a few days later. His reconnoissance developing
41 8 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
into a raid across Maryland and Pennsylvania, he rode
entirely around McClellan's army, and, despite Union
attempts to head him off, recrossed the river unharmed.
Stuart had subjected Napoleon's namesake to this humil-
iation once before, on the Peninsula ; but the second raid
was especially galling, as it took place on northern terri-
tory. Lincoln must have been smarting under the ridicule
evoked by the affair, when, shortly afterward, one of a
group who were chatting familiarly with him asked : —
" Mr. President, what about McClellan? "
Without looking at his questioner, Mr. Lincoln drew
an imaginary circle and said deliberately : —
" When I was a boy we used to play a game, three times
round and out. Stuart has been round him twice ; if he
goes round him once more, gentlemen, McClellan will be
out." i«^
The General himself, ascribing Stuart's success to a
lack of horses for the Federal cavalry, telegraphed that
unless this deficiency was supplied, there would be con-
stant danger of similar expeditions. To which Halleck
curtly replied : —
" The President has read your telegram, and directs me
to suggest that if the enemy had more occupation south
of the river, his cavalry would not be so likely to make
raids north of it." ^^^
Mr. Lincoln's peremptory order to advance was a week
old. Every day had seemed to furnish McClellan with
fresh reasons for not obeying it. The fine autumn season
was slipping by, and the Potomac still separated him from
his rapidly recruiting enemy. Another effort to drive the
General forward now came by special messenger, in one
of the President's characteristic letters. It read : —
" You remember my speaking to you of what I called
your over-cautiousness. Are you not over-cautious when
you assume that you cannot do what the enemy is con-
stantly doing ? Should you not claim to be at least his
equal in prowess, and act upon the claim ? As I under-
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 419
stand, you telegraphed General Halleck that you cannot
subsist your army at Winchester unless the railroad from
Harper's Ferry to that point be put in working order.
But the enemy does now subsist his army at Winchester,
at a distance nearly twice as great from railroad trans-
portation as you would have to do without the railroad
last named. . . . Again, one of the standard maxims of
war, as you know, is to ' operate upon the enemy's com-
munications as much as possible without exposing your
own.' You seem to act as if this applies against you, but
cannot apply in your favor. Change positions with the
enemy, and think you not he would break your communi-
cation with Richmond within the next twenty-four hours ?
You dread his going into Pennsylvania ; but if he does so
in full force, he gives up his communications to you abso-
lutely, and you have nothing to do but to follow and ruin
him. If he does so with less than full force, fall upon and
beat what is left behind all the easier. Exclusive of the
water-line, you are now nearer Richmond than the enemy
is by the route that you can and he must take. Why can
you not reach there before him, unless you admit that he
is more than your equal on a march ? His route is the arc
of a circle, while yours is the chord. The roads are as
good on yours as on his. ... If he should move north-
ward, I would follow him closely, holding his communi-
cations. If he should prevent our seizing his communica-
tions and move toward Richmond, I would press closely
to him, fight him if a favorable opportunity should pre-
sent, and at least try to beat him to Richmond on the
inside track. I say ' try ' ; if we never try, we shall never
succeed. If he makes a stand at Winchester, moving
neither north nor south, I would fight him there, on the
idea that if we cannot beat him when he bears the wastage
of coming to us, we never can when we bear the wastage
of going to him. This proposition is a simple truth, and
is too important to be lost sight of for a moment. In
coming to us he tenders us an advantage which we should
420 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
not waive. We should not so operate as to merely drive
him away. As we must beat him somewhere or fail finally,
we can do it, if at all, easier near to us than far away. If
we cannot beat the enemy where he now is, we never can,
he again being within the intrenchments of Richmond.
. . . When at length running for Richmond ahead of
him enables him to move this way, if he does so, turn and
attack him in rear. But I think he should be engaged
long before such point is reached. It is all easy if our
troops march as well as the enemy, and it is unmanly to say
they cannot do it. This letter is in no sense an order." "^
McClellan answered briefly that he would advance as
soon as his troops were in suitable condition. Some such
result — we have reason to know — was expected by Mr.
Lincoln. Before the letter left his hands, he confided a
fear to Vice-President Hamlin that it would do no good,
and that he would soon be compelled to retire McClellan.
And now came another soul-trying period of recrimi-
nation. The General commanding the army refused to
move because the horses and supplies, which he inces-
santly demanded, did not arrive in sufiicient quantities.
The General-in-Chief replied that they were forwarded
with all possible speed, that no armies in the world had
been better cared for on a campaign, and that no such
lack of things existed, at any time, as would justify Mc-
Clellan in not obeying the President's order to advance.
Lincoln himself, as the controversy grew warmer, was
betrayed by the " cheerless, almost hopeless prospect "
of accomplishing anything, into several caustic little
messages.^^^ They stung McClellan into everything but
action. " If you could know," he wrote to his wife, " the
mean character of the despatches I receive, you would boil
over with anger. When it is possible to misunderstand,
and when it is not possible ; whenever there is a chance
of a wretched innuendo, then it comes." "^ A less self-
centered man would have read his danger in all this.
McCleUan had eyes only for that " ideal completeness of
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 421
preparation," which he now again, as on previous occa-
sions, strove to attain at the expense of more important
military considerations. He still refused to see that Lee's
army was incomparably worse off than his. It would, in
all likelihood, have made no difference to him had he
seen it; for McClellan was by temperament incapable
of grasping the full significance of Napoleon's maxim,
"The commander who allows himself to be guided by
the commissaries will never stir, and all his expeditions
will fail." That this expedition, at all events, would fail,
seemed inevitable. The situation suggested to Lincoln
one of his little stories, which he told to a friend of the
General, who called at the White House.
" McClellan's tardiness," said he, " reminds me of a fel-
low in Illinois who had studied law, but had never tried
a case. He was sued, and, not having confidence in his
ability to manage his own case, employed a lawyer to
manage it for him. He had only a confused idea of the
meaning of law terms, but was anxious to make a display
of learning, and, on the trial, constantly made sugges-
tions to his lawyer, who paid but little attention to him.
At last, fearing that his lawyer was not handling the
opposing counsel very well, he lost all his patience, and
springing to his feet cried out : ' Why don't you go at
him with a fi. fa.^ a demurrer^ a cajnas^ a surrebutter^
or a ne exeat^ or something ; and not stand there like a
nudum pactum^ or a non est'^ ' " ^^*
Whether the parable reached McClellan, as the Presi-
dent doubtless intended, deponent saith not ; but it is of
record that " Little Mac's " inertia gave way, at last, under
Lincoln's persistent goad. Suddenly, on the 26th of Octo-
ber, with many supplies still undistributed, reenforcements
not yet up, and preparations as planned generally incom-
plete, the army was put in motion. A week later, on No-
vember 2, McClellan announced to the President that his
entire force had crossed the river, and would forthwith
advance upon the enemy.
422 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
But it was too late. Lee, with heavily recruited ranks,
again faced him. Most of the Union advantages, so dearly
bought at Antietam, were gone. One still remained, how-
ever,— the inside track to Richmond; and Mr. Lincoln,
while trying to get McClellan started, during the closing
days of October, had worried lest his dilatory tactics
should sacrifice that too. The President had then, in his
own mind, fixed a test whereby the General was to rise
or fall. If McClellan should cross the Potomac in time
to deal the Confederates a telling blow, all would be
well ; but if he allowed them to pass over the Blue Ridge,
so as to get between Richmond and the Army of the Poto-
mac, it would cost him his command. ^^^ Accordingly, when
it was reported in Washington that Lee had reached Cul-
peper Court House, orders were issued for McClellan's
removal. ^^*' Late on the night of November 7, during a
driving snowstorm that appropriately linked the close of
his military career with the close of the beautiful autumn
weather which he had frittered away, the General was
deposed. An officer from the War Department, arriving
in camp with the still protesting Burnside, delivered this
message : —
" By direction of the President of the United States,
it is ordered that Major-General McClellan be relieved
from the command of the Army of the Potomac, and
that Major-General Burnside take the command of that
army." ^'^
A supplementary message from Halleck read : —
" Repair to Trenton, N. J., reporting on your arrival
at that place, by telegraph, for further orders." ^^^
With a subordination which surprised those who had
feared a coup d'etat^ McClellan promptly turned the com-
mand over to his successor, and took an affectionate leave
of the army.
The rest is soon told. In McClellan's dismissal the
Democratic politicians found their opportunity. His
antagonism to Lincoln's policy, his personal grievances
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 423
against the government, his measure of fame as a mili-
tary hero, his popularity in the army, and his attractive
personality — all combined to make him the available
candidate of the party. He was nominated at the Demo-
cratic National Convention, in the summer of 1864, to
contest the presidency with Mr. Lincoln, whom the Re-
publicans had again named for that office. The vital issue
between them was squarely made. Lincoln stood for the
preservation of the Union, by a vigorous prosecution of
the war and the extinction of slavery. McClellan declared
for a policy of conciliation and compromise, whereby peace
might be restored to the Union, without any impairment
of State rights. A spirited canvass followed. Its rancor
still lingers in the memory, if not in the blood, of those
who took part. At the outset, indications pointed, from
many directions, to McClellan's success. Even the demand
in the Democratic platform — which he disavowed as going
too far — for an immediate cessation of hostilities, on the
ground that the war was a failure, seemed to meet with
the momentary approval of the people. They were weary
of a struggle which had plunged almost every household
into mourning ; and the horror of Grant's terrible but
apparently futile losses, during the recent campaign from
the Rapidan to the James, was still uppermost in their
thoughts. A heavy weight of condemnation — popular
discontent readily finds a scapegoat — rested on the
administration. So wide-spread, indeed, did this feeling
become, that toward the end of the summer Lincoln's
prospects for reelection were gloomy in the extreme.
Some of his own party leaders intriguing against him
had, as we have seen, placed General John C. Fremont
in nomination; while those who remained loyal to him
entered upon the canvass with grave misgivings. The
President, himself, sensed the omens of defeat.
But a seasoned campaigner like Lincoln could not, to
use his own expression, be easily " stampeded." All the
political sagacity, and tact in the management of men,
424 LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN
that characterized his previous contests were brought to
bear, with signal potency, upon this, the crowning con-
flict of his career. As President he maintained, it should
be said, a dignified attitude toward the canvass ; yet op-
portunities for making himself felt, at the critical junc-
tures, were not lacking. Fremont's withdrawal was soon
secured, influential Republican malcontents were brought
one after the other into line, local partisan differences in
divers places yielded to compromise, and steadily closing
ranks gave promise at last of a solid party vote. With
the opportune victories, meanwhile, of Farragut in Mobile
Bay, Sherman at Atlanta, and Sheridan in the Shenan-
doah valley, the tide of popular favor set strong in Lin-
coln's direction. His ability to make a successful end of
the war was no longer doubted by the people. They be-
came convinced, moreover, that Lincoln's election would
lead to peace, union, and the abolition of slavery ; but
that McClellan's election would as surely involve a sur-
render of some, if not all, the principles for which they
had poured out their blood and their treasure. Nations
do not deal in syllogisms, but give them time, and they
will arrive in their own way at essentially sound conclu-
sions. When the North registered its decision at the polls,
on November 8, Lincoln was elected by an overwhelm-
ing vote. A popular majority of almost half a million,
and States enough to cast 212 electoral votes, out of a
possible 233, gave him one of the notable triumphs in our
history.^^^ McClellan received the 21 electoral votes of
New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky, two of which, it
should be said, were originally Slave States. With this
meagre consolation stake the Democratic candidate, his
military commission resigned, passed into the limbo,
already well tenanted, of ungratified presidential ambi-
tions.
Amidst the rejoicing over Lincoln's success, Secretary
Seward, addressing a public meeting, said : —
" The election has placed our President beyond the pale
THE YOUNG NAPOLEON 425
of human envy or human harm, as he is above the pale of
human ambition. Henceforth all men will come to see
him as we have seen him — a true, loyal, patient, patriotic,
and benevolent man. Having no longer any motive to
malign or injure him, detraction will cease, and Abraham
Lincoln will take his place with Washington, and Frank-
lin, and Jefferson, and Adams, and Jackson — among
the benefactors of the country and of the human race." ^*°
This noble utterance offered a felicitous close to an
unusually fierce campaign, but it erred, alas, in one partic-
ular. Lincoln was not beyond the pale of human harm.
In less than six months from the day of that triumph, the
man before whom leaders, great and small, had gone down
in unbroken succession, went down himself before the
only thing that ever wholly mastered him — an assassin's
bullet.
A LIST OF THE BOOKS CITED,
WITH THE CORRESPONDING ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE
NOTES
Adams: The Address of Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts,
on the life, character, and services of William H. Seward. De-
livered by invitation of the Legislature of the State of New York,
in Albany, April 18, 1873. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1873.
Adams's Dana: Richard Henry Dana. A biography by Charles
Francis Adams. Two volumes. Boston and New York: Houghton,
Mifflin & Co. 1890.
Allan: The Army of Northern Virginia in 1862. By William Allan,
A. M., LL. D. With an introduction by John C. Ropes. Boston and
New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1892.
American Conflict: The American Conflict. A History of the
Great Rebellion in the United States of America, 1860-65. Its
causes, incidents, and results. By Horace Greeley. Two volumes.
Hartford: O. D. Case & Co. 1864 and 1867.
Arnold: The Life of Abraham Lincoln. By Isaac N. Arnold. Sev-
enth edition. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. 1896.
Baker: The Works of William H. Seward, edited by George E.
Baker. Four volumes. New York: Redfield. 1861.
Bancroft: The Life of William H. Seward. By Frederic Ban-
croft. Two volumes. New York and London: Harper & Bros.
1900.
Barrett: Life of Abraham Lincoln. Presenting his early history,
political career, and speeches in and out of Congress. By Joseph
H. Barrett. Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin. 1865.
Bartlett: The Life and Public Services of Hon. Abraham Lincoln.
To which is added a biographical sketch of Hon. Hannibal Ham-
lin. By D. W^ Bartlett. New York: H. Dayton. 1860.
Bates: The Battle of Chancellors ville. By Samuel P. Bates. Mead-
ville. Pa.: Edward T. Bates. 1882.
Battles and Leaders: Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.
Being for the most part contributions by Union and Confederate
Offlcers. Edited by Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence
Clough Buel, of the editorial staff of the Century Magazine. Four
volumes. New York: The Century Co. 1887.
Black: Essays and Speeches of Jeremiah S. Black. With a bio-
428 A LIST OF THE BOOKS CITED
graphical sketch. By Chauncy F. Black. New York: D. Apple-
ton & Co. 1885.
Blaine: Twenty Years of Congress, from Lincoln to Garfield. With
a Review of the Events which led to the Political Revolution of
1860. By James G. Blaine. Two volumes. Norwich, Conn.: The
Henry Bill Publishing Co. 1884.
Bout well: Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs. By
George S. Boutwell. Two volumes. New York: McClure, Phillips
&Co. 1902.
Brockett: The Life and Times of Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth
President of the United States. Including his speeches, mes-
sages, inaugurals, and proclamations. By L. P. Brockett, M. D.
Philadelphia: Bradley & Co. 1865.
Brooks: Abraham Lincoln and the Downfall of American Slavery.
By Noah Brooks. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1896.
Brown's Douglas: Stephen Arnold Douglas. By William Garrott
Brown. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1902.
Browne: The Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln's life
and character portrayed by those who knew him. Prepared and
arranged by Francis P. Browne. St. Louis: William G. Hills.
1896.
Buchanan: Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the
Rebellion. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1866.
Butler: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-
General Benjamin F. Butler. By Benjamin F. Butler. Boston:
A. M. Thayer & Co. 1892.
Byers: Iowa in War Times. By S. H. M. Byers. Des Moines:
W. D. Condit & Co. 1888.
Campbell: Reminiscences and Documents relating to the Civil War,
during the Year 1865. By John A. Campbell. Baltimore: John
Murphy & Co. 1887.
Carpenter: The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln. Six months at
the White House. By F. B. Carpenter. New York: Hurd &
Houghton. 1867.
Chandler: Zachariah Chandler. An outline sketch of his life and
public services. By The Detroit Post and Tribune. With an in-
troductory letter from James G. Blaine, of Maine. Detroit: The
Post and Tribune Co. 1880.
Chase Papers: Annual Report of the American Historical Associ-
ation for the year 1902. Volume II. Diary and Correspondence
of Salmon P. Chase. Washington: Government Printing Office.
1903.
Chittenden: Recollections of President Lincoln and his Adminis-
tration. By L. E. Chittenden, his Register of the Treasury. New
York: Harper & Bros. 1891.
A LIST OF THE KOOKS CITED 429
Chittenden's Reminiscences: Personal Reminiscences, 1840-90,
including some not hitherto published of Lincoln and the War. By
L. E. Chittenden. New York: Richmond, Croscup & Co. 1893.
Coffin: Abraham Lincoln. By Charles Carleton Coffin. New
York: Harper & Bros. 1893.
Coleman: The Life of John J. Crittenden. With selections from
his correspondence and speeches. Edited by his daughter, Mrs.
Chapman Coleman. Two volumes. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippin-
cott & Co. 1871.
Committee on the Wak : Report of the Joint Committee on the
Conduct of the War. Nine volumes. Washington: Government
Printing OfBce. 1863-66.
CoMTE DE Paris: History of the Civil War in America. By the
Comte de Paris. Translated, with the approval of the author, by
Louis F. Tasistro. Edited by Henry Coppde, LL. D. Four vol-
umes. Philadelphia: Jos. H. Coates & Co. 1876.
Condon: Life of Major-General James Shields, Hero of Three
Wars and Senator from Three States. By Hon. William H. Con-
don. Chicago: Press of the Blakely Printing Co. 1900.
Conway: Autobiography, Memories, and Experiences of Moncure
Daniel Conway. Two volumes. Boston and New York: Houghton,
MifBin&Co. 1904.
Cox: Union — Disunion — Reunion. Three Decades of Federal
Legislation, 1855-85. Personal and historical memories of events
preceding, during, and since the American Civil War. By Samuel
S. Cox. Providence, R. I.: J. A. & R. A. Reid. 1885.
Crawford: The History of the Fall of Fort Sumter. The Genesis
of the Civil War. By Samuel W. Crawford, the surgeon stationed
at Fort Sumter, later Brevet Major-General U. S. A. New York:
S. F. McLean & Co. 1898.
Curtis: Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United
States. By George Ticknor Curtis. Two volumes. New York:
Harper & Bros. 1883.
CuRTis's Lincoln: The True Abraham Lincoln. By William Eleroy
Curtis. Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Co. 1904.
CuRTis's McClellan: Life, Character, and Public Services of
General George B. McClellan. An Address delivered December 4,
1886, at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, at the request of
the McClellan Memorial Association of Philadelphia. By George
Ticknor Curtis. Boston: Cupples, Upham & Co. 1887.
CUTTS: A brief treatise upon Constitutional and Party Questions,
and the History of Political Parties, as I received it orally from
the late Senator Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois. By J. Madison
Cutts, Brevet Lieuienant-Colonel U. S. A. New York: D, Apple'
ton & Co. 1866.
430 A LIST OF THE BOOKS CITED
Cyclopedia: The American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of
important events. [1861 to 1865 inclusive.] Five volumes. New
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Dana: Recollections of the Civil War. With the Leaders at Wash-
ington and in the Field in the Sixties. By Charles A. Dana, Assist-
ant Secretary of War from 1863 to 1865. New York: D. Appleton
&Co. 1898.
Davidson: A Complete History of Illinois from 1673 to 1873. By
Alexander Davidson and Bernard Stuvd. Springfield: Illinois
Journal Co. 1874.
Davis: The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. By Jef-
ferson Davis. Two volumes. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1881.
Debates: Political Debates between Abraham Lincoln and Ste-
phen A. Douglas, in the Celebrated Campaign of 1858 in Illinois.
Including the preceding speeches of each at Chicago, Springfield,
etc. Also the Two Great Speeches of Abraham Lincoln in Ohio
in 1859. Cleveland: O. S. Hubbell & Co. 1895.
De Joinvllle: The Army of the Potomac. Its organization, its com-
mander, and its campaign. By the Prince de Joinville. Trans-
lated from the French. With notes. By William Henry Hurlbert.
New York: Anson D. F. Randolph. 1862.
Diplomatic History: The Diplomatic History of the War for the
Union. Being the fifth volume of the Works of William H. Sew-
ard. Edited by George E. Baker. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin &
Co. 1884.
Dix: Memoirs of John Adams Dix. Compiled by his son, Morgan
Dix. Two volumes. New York: Harper & Bros. 1883.
Doubleday: Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-
61. By Abner Doubleday, Brevet Major-General U. S. A. New
York: Harper & Bros. 1876.
Draper: History of the American Civil War. By John William
Draper, M. D., LL. D. Containing also the causes of the War,
and the events preparatory to it, up to the close of President
Buchanan's administration. Three volumes. New York: Harper
&Bros. 1867-70.
Field: Memories of Many Men and Some Women. By Maunsell
B. Field. New York: Harper & Bros. 1874.
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NOTES
NOTES TO CHAPTER I
1. Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, on the Big South
Fork of Nolin Creek in Hardin, now La Rue County, Kentucky.
Four years later, his family moved to Knob Creek, not far away,
where they remained until they left the State in the autumn of
1816.
2. Samuel Haycraft, in Herndon i, 14.
3. Whitney, 11.
4. Near Little Pigeon Creek in what is now Spencer County.
5. Lincoln's autobiographical letter to Jesse W. Fell, secretary of the
Illinois State Central Committee, December 20, 1859. Arnold, 14;
Works i, 596; Facsimile in Lamon, 539, and in Lamon's Recol-
lections, 9-12.
6. Lincoln's short autobiography in the third person, written at the
request of a friend to be used in the preparation of a biography
for the canvass of 1860. Works i, 639.
7. Lamon, 36, 69; Herndon i, 32, 39-40, 52; Stoddard, 36; Brooks,
31; Nicolay & Hay i, 35; Tarbell i, 29-30; Tarbell's Early Life,
46-48.
8. " Abraham now thinks that the aggregate of all his schooling
did not amount to one year." — Lincoln's Autobiography in 1860.
Works i, 639.
9. Herndon i, 32.
10. For references to this superiority in spelling and writing, see Tar-
bell's Early Life, 83, 84, 90; Tarbell i, 41-42; Stoddard, 34;
Nicolay & Hay i, 42; Holland, 30; Arnold, 20; Herndon i, 35,
38; Lamon, 34-35; Thayer, 118.
11. " He said to me that he had got hold of and read through every
book he ever heard of in that country, for a circuit of about fifty
miles." — Swett's Reminiscences, in Rice, 459.
12. Mrs. Allen Gentry, nee Roby. See Lamon, 34, 35, 70, 71; Hern-
don i, 35-36.
13. David Turnham, in Thayer, 119.
14. Nathaniel Grigsby, in Lamon, 71.
15. Lamon, 40.
16. Herndon i, 48-49; Lamon, 67; Morse i, 13.
17. " I induced my husband to permit Abe to read and study at
440 NOTES TO CHAPTER I pp. 6-9
home as well as at school. At first he was not easily reconciled to
it, but finally he too seemed willing to encourage him to a certain
extent." — Mrs. Thomas Lincoln, September 8, 1865, in Herndon
i, 33. This lady, Sarah Bush Johnston, had married Thomas
Lincoln about a year after the death of Abraham's mother. The
boy was in his eleventh year when the second wedding took place.
18. Lamon, 67.
19. Herndon i, 39; see also Lamon, 36.
20. " Away back in my childhood, the earliest days of my being able
to read, I got hold of a small book, such a one as few of the
younger members have ever seen — Weems's Life of Washing-
ton."— Lincoln's address to the Senate of New Jersey, February
21, 1861. Works i, 688.
21. Lamon, 68; Arnold, 25; Tarbell's Early Life, 62; Nicolay &
Hay i, 43.
22. " The Lincolns through which the President's genealogy is traced
were, for six generations, with a single exception, pioneers in the
settlement of new countries. 1st, Samuel, from England, an early
settler at Hingham, Massachusetts;
" 2d, Mordecai, of Scituate, lived and died near where he was
born;
" 3d, Mordecai, settled in Pennsylvania, thirty years previous to
the organization of Berks County;
"4th, John, went into the wilds of Virginia;
" 5th, Abraham, went to Kentucky with Daniel Boone when the
country was inhabited by savages and wild beasts;
" 6th, Thomas, who went with his son Abraham, the future
President, into the sparsely settled portion of Indiana." — Samuel
Shackford, in New England Historical and Genealogical Register^
vol. xli, p. 156.
23. Works i, 639.
24. Leonard Swett claims to have been told by Abraham Lincoln
himself, that Thomas Lincoln had recourse to this mode of raising
money in order to meet unpaid notes bearing his endorsement. The
explanation hardly accounts for all of the boy's drudgery. More-
over, his father, according to Colonel Chapman, a relative by mar-
riage, " habitually treated him with great barbarity " ; and cousin
Dennis Hanks, who insists that the elder Lincoln loved his son,
admits that he knocked him off the fence merely for questioning
a passing traveler or answering his inquiries about the roads. See
Rice, 458; Lamon, 40, 69, 70, 77; Browne, 53.
25. For one brief period, he chafed so under his burden that he
begged a friendly neighbor to help him cast it off by getting him
a place on one of the Ohio River boats. The man pointed out to
him that his time legally belonged to his father until he became
pp. 9-12 NOTES TO CHAPTER I 441
of age, and that he was under a moral obligation, as well, not to
leave his parents without their consent. Whereupon he returned
to his work. See Herndon i, 53.
26. " He is usually above the medium height, and rather spare. He
stoops a little too; for he has done a deal of hard work, and
expects to do more; but you see at once, that unless his lungs are
weak, his strength is by no means broken, and you are quite sure
that many a stately tree is destined to be humbled by his sinewy
arm." — The Pioneer, in McConnell, 138.
27. Mrs. Crawford, in Lamon, 51.
28. William Wood, in Herndon i, 53; Lamon, 52, 68, 69.
29. Browne, 53.
30. Lamon, 52.
31. May not this, in Weems's Washington, also have had its influ-
ence ? — " His delight was in that of the manliest sort, which, by
stringing the limbs and swelling the muscles, promotes the kind-
liest flow of blood and spirits. At jumping with a long pole, or
heaving heavy weights, for his years he hardly had an equal."
32. The town of central Illinois in which, during the summer of
1831, Lincoln began life on his own account.
33. Herndon i, 116; Lamon, 154. The latter states that the feat was
performed often, and that the weight varied between a thousand
and twelve hundred pounds.
34. Brockett, 62-63; Herndon i, 116-117. For a fanciful account,
see Thayer, 233-234. Major Whitney, the author of Life on the
Circuit with Lincoln, informed the writer that Greene gave him a
somewhat different version of the affair. According to this story,
which is somewhat borne out by an account in Onstot (84), Greene
was given to habits of betting and petty gambling, which Lincoln
sought to correct. After much persuasion, Greene promised to re-
form as soon as he had made good his losses. Whereupon Lincoln,
to put an end to the vice at once, suggested that his friend might
win back the exact amount by laying the wager described in the
text.
35. This was so, in a considerable degree, to the day of his death.
Says Charles A. Dana, speaking of the President: —
" I remember that the last time I went to see him at the White
House — the afternoon before he was killed — I found him in a
side room with coat off and sleeves rolled up, washing his hands.
He had finished his work for the day, and was going away. I
noticed then the thinness of his arms, and how well developed,
strong, and active his muscles seemed to be. In fact, there was
nothing flabby or feeble about Mr. Lincoln physically. He was a
very quick man in his movements when he chose to be, and he
had immense physical endurance. Night after night he would
442 NOTES TO CHAPTER I pp. 12-26
work late and hard without heing wilted hy it, and he always
seemed as ready for the next day's work as though he had done
nothing the day before." — Dana, 172-173.
36. New England Historical and Genealogical Register xix, 360; Hol-
land, 20-21; Mcolay & Hay i, 4; Barrett, 11; Works i, 117, 596,
638.
37. Lamon, 8, 16; Herndon i, 8.
38. Nicolay & Hay i, 21; McClure's Stories, 56; Lamon, 7; Hern-
don i, 7; Browne, 41; Arnold, 16.
39. Swett's Reminiscences, in Rice, 463.
40. Dennis Hanks, in Browne, 53.
41. Interview with sculptor Thomas D. Jones, in December, 1860,
quoted in Century Magazine, n. s. xx, 933.
42. The Chronicles were published in Herndon i, 50-55, edition of
1889, and were omitted from some later editions.
43. Lamon, 63-66.
44. Ferrying and paddling about on the Ohio, canoeing on the San-
gamon, two flat-boat voyages down the Ohio and the Mississippi
to New Orleans, a flat-boat voyage as pilot down the Sangamon,
a steamboat voyage as assistant in getting the stranded Talis-
man up the Sangamon, comprised, according to the records, his
activities on the water.
45. In April, 1828.
46. For various versions of the episode see: Holland, 35-36; Coffin,
43; Lamon, 71-72; Herndon i, 54; Browne, 75-77; Thayer, 158-
168; Nicolay & Hay i, 44; Works i, 640; Stoddard, 52-56; Swett's
Reminiscences, in Rice, 462; McClure's Stories, 33-34.
47. Stoddard, 64; Lamon, 83-84; Herndon i, 67; Browne, 101-102;
Coffin, 60; Thayer, 202-203.
48. The reports of this affair vary, but in unimportant particulars.
Compare Arnold, 32; Stoddard, 67-69; Herndon i, 72-75; Coffin,
64r-67; Browne, 98-99; Holland, 45; Tarbell's Early Life, 120-
122; Lamon, 90-94; Nicolay & Hay i, 79-81; French, 42; Morse,
i, 18-19; Brooks, 51-52; McClure's Stories, 57-58; Chittenden's
Reminiscences, 352-354; Irelan xvi, 86-88; Thayer, 220-224; Tar-
bell i, 63-64.
49. Lamon, 94-95; Thayer, 225-226.
50. Lamon, 151-152.
51. A. Y. Ellis, in Lamon, 152.
52. The original account of this incident is to be found in Holland,
44. For modifications see: Coffin, 63-64; Browne, 99-100; Nico-
lay & Hay i, 83; Tarbell's Early Life, 122-123; French, 42-43;
Tarbell i, 64-65; Thayer, 209-210; McClure's Stories, 29; Onstot,
85-87.
53. On a certain occasion, Lincoln acted as one of the seconds while
pp. 26-32 NOTES TO CHAPTER I 443
two neighbors settled a quarrel growing out of a lawsuit, with their
fists. When the fight was over, the other second, a very small
person, remarked, " Well, Abe, my man has whipped yours, and
I can whip you." To which Lincoln soberly replied that he was
willing to fight, provided the challenger would chalk the outline of
his figure upon the big man's more ample proportions, and every
blow struck outside of that mark should be counted foul. This
sally, like the repartee of the famous Curran, under somewhat
similar circumstances, wound up the whole affair in good humor.
54. Chittenden's Reminiscences, 316.
55. Thayer, 56-57. See also Pierce iv, 235; McClure's Stories, 181.
56. Brockett, 696; McClure's Stories, 249; Ward, 122-123. In the
last, General Viele says: —
" On board ship, I have never seen a man who could perform
this feat. Any man who will attempt to do it will see how diffi-
cult it is."
57. Tarbell's Early Life, 102; Tarbell i, 50-51.
58. " In 1864, five six-footers, accompanied by two representatives,
called on the President and were introduced to him. These six-
footers seemed to astonish the Chief Magistrate, who, after care-
fully surveying the tall specimens, exclaimed, * Are they all from
your State ? ' ' All,' was the spontaneous response. * Why, it
seems to me,' said the President, glancing at the short represen-
tatives, * that your State always sends her little men to Congress.' "
— Gobright, 329.
59. Lincoln as a representative from Sangamon County, Douglas as
a candidate for the office of State's Attorney, for the first judicial
district.
60. Lamon, 185; Herndon i, 154; Morse i, 43; Nicolay & Hay i, 124.
61. Works i. 111; Herndon i, 268.
62. Coffin, 480. See also Browne, 680; Lamon 's Recollections, 128;
Grant, 590-592; Porter, 385.
63. The list of Lincoln's comments on small men would be incom-
plete without his reference to Colonel Ellsworth as " the greatest
little man I ever met " ; and his description of General Sheridan
as " a little chap with round head, red face, legs longer than his
body, and not enough neck to hang him by."
64. Kelley's Reminiscences, in Rice, 259; Bartlett, 140-145; Irelan
xvi, 346-350.
65. Sherman i, 231.
66. C. Van Santvoord, in Century Magazine, n. s. iii, 613.
67. Poore ii, 63; Rice, 223; Diary of a Public Man, North American
Review cxxix, 266-267.
68. Mr. Sumner's height in his prime was six feet and three inches.
69. " A wager was made one day in Springfield, between some
444 NOTES TO CHAPTER II pp. 35-40
friends of Mr. Lincoln and of O. M. Hatch, late Secretary of the
State of Illinois (also a tall, slender man), as to their relative
height. Mr. Hatch was first placed against the wall, so a mark
could be made over his head, Mr. Lincoln remarking, at the time,
* Now, Hatch, stand fair.' When the mark was duly made, Mr.
Lincoln was placed beside it, and at first Mr. Hatch's friends
declared that they had won the wager, 'Wait,' said Mr. Lincoln,
' the mark is not yet made for me.' Then he began to stretch
himself out like India rubber, and went nearly two inches above
Mr. Hatch's mark, carrying off the stakes amidst the shouts
and laughter of the bystanders." — Leonard W. Volk, in Century
Magazine, n. s. iii, 462. For other measuring scenes see: Browne,
352, 355, 360, 387; Curtis's Lincoln, 28-29.
NOTES TO CHAPTER II
1. According to Lamon, Lincoln had been decided upon as captain
the previous autumn, at a militia muster in Clary's Grove.
2. Tarbell's Early Life, 137-138; Holland, 49; Brooks, 58; Stod-
dard, 74; Arnold, 34; Morse i, 35-36; French, 45^6; Thayer,
231-232; Tarbell i, 75-76; Nicolay & Hay i, 89-90; Works i,
597, 641. Lamon (78 and 101, 102) questions, though not con-
sistently, the story that Lincoln worked for Kirkpatrick. Leonard
Swett, in Rice, 464-^65, gives a version that differs from the com-
monly accepted one ; but his evidently faulty memory impairs the
value of what might otherwise be an important contribution to
Lincoln literature.
3. Ben: Perley Poore, in Rice, 218-219; Coffin, 68-69; Herndon
i, 84; Tarbell's Early Life, 138; Browne, 107; French, 47; Tar-
bell i, 76-77.
4. Another volunteer captain, who had been a railroad conductor,
improved upon this during a later war. While drilling -a squad,
that was marching by flank, he turned to talk to a friend, for a
moment. Upon looking again at his men, he saw that they were in
the act of marching into a fence. Something had to be done to halt
them, and that at once; so he shouted: "Down brakes! Down
brakes ! " This command was probably as effectual as that of the
English militia officer who, wishing to have his company fall back
that it might dress with the line, gave the order : " Advance three
paces backwards ! March ! "
5. Lamon, 102-103; Herndon i, 86; Stoddard, 75.
6. Herndon i, 86-87; Lamon, 103-104; Stoddard, 76.
7. Ben: Perley Poore, in Rice, 219.
8. Lamon, 109-112; Browne, 112-113; Herndon i, 87-88; Thayer,
pp. 42-49 NOTES TO CHAPTER II 445
239-240; Nicolay & Hay i, 94; Letter of the Hon. Joseph Gillespie,
in Lincoln and Douglas, 194 a-194 b.
9. Lamon, 108-109; Tarbell's Early Life, 141; Browne, 107-109;
Stoddard, 77-78; Arnold, 34-35; Brooks, 59; Herndon i, 87;
Coffin, 69; Tarbell i, 77; Thayer, 236-238; French, 46^7. This
episode vividly recalls Andrew Jackson's encounter with mutineers
during the Creek War.
10. Stoddard, 79; Lamon, 111; Thayer, 240.
11. Among these, besides Lincoln, were Zachary Taylor, Winfield
Scott, Albert Sidney Johnston, and Robert Anderson.
12. Captain Lincoln was enrolled with his company in the Fourth
Illinois Mounted Volunteers, April 21, 1832. Mustered out of
service May 27, he at once enlisted as a private in Captain Elijah
Iles's Independent Spy Company. Mustered out again June 16,
he reenlisted in the company June 20, when it was reorganized
under Captain Jacob M. Early. Upon the disbandment of the
company, July 10, he received his final discharge.
13. Arnold, 36.
14. The first State Convention, in Illinois, was held by the Demo-
crats, December 7, 1835.
15. For the address in full, see Lamon, 129; Works i, 4.
16. Reynolds, 185.
17. There are slight differences in the reports of this vote. Herndon
i, 96, says that 208 (probably a misprint for 280) votes were cast,
and that Lincoln received all but 3. Lamon, 134, gives his vote
as 277 out of a total of 280. Nicolay & Hay i, 109, quote the same
figures from the Sangamo Journal of August 11, 1832. Mr. Lin-
coln, himself, in the autobiography of 1860, gives the vote as
" 277 for and 7 against him." Miss Tarbell (Early Life, 158, and
Tarbell i, 91) bases upon an examination of the official returns
in the county clerk's office at Springfield, the statement that, of
300 votes cast for representatives, Lincoln received 277.
18. Mark the further parallel with Washington, who was also a sur-
veyor, when a young man.
19. Offutt's business having gone to ruin in the spring of 1832,
Lincoln, on his return from the war, opened a store in partner-
ship with William F. Berry. It soon " winked out." In the spring
of 1833 he was appointed postmaster of New Salem, and a few
months later he became Calhoun's assistant.
20. A. Y. Ellis, in Lamon, 127; Herndon i, 94.
21. Herndon i, 117-118; Lamon, 156; Thayer, 261-262.
22. Lincoln is generally credited with the first place. Nicolay &
Hay i, 122, Morse i, 42, and Brooks, 71, report the vote for the
four successful candidates to have been : Lincoln, 1376; Dawson,
1370; Carpenter, 1170; and Stuart, 1164. Mr. Lincoln, himself,
446 NOTES TO CHAPTER II pp. ^,0-57
after an interval of twenty-^ix years, stated that he " was then
elected to the legislature by the highest vote cast for any candi-
date." He probably confused this election in his memory with
that of 1836. For, Herndon (i, 118) and Tarbell (Early Life, 196)
quote the official returns in Springfield, as revised shortly after
election, to be: Dawson, 1390; Lincoln, 1376; Carpenter, 1170;
and Stuart, 1164.
23. Lamon, 125; Herndon i, 94-95; Stoddard, 85; Morse i, 39;
Brooks, 65; Coffin, 72; Tarbell's Early Life, 156; Nicolay & Hay
i, 107-108.
24. James Gourley, in Lamon, 187.
25. The news of Franklin's discoveries, more than eighty years be-
fore, and of the subsequent use of the lightning-rod, had evidently
not yet become current in Illinois. Lincoln's ignorance of the
subject, however, was short-lived after he had seen Forquer's rod.
The sight of it led him, as he once told Speed, •* to the study of
the properties of electricity and the utility of the rod as a con-
ductor."
26. The reply to Forquer has been compared to Pitt's famous phi-
lippic against Horace Walpole, beginning, according to the John-
sonian version, with " The atrocious crime of being a young man,
which the honorable gentleman has with such spirit and decency
charged upon me." The Englishman was five years older, at the
time of its delivery, than Lincoln was when he spoke ; yet for
crushing, biting invective, the few words of the backwoodsman
easily excel the collegian's elegant periods.
27. Arnold, 47-49; Lamon, 188-189; Morse i 51-52; French, 60-
62; Stoddard, 104-105; Brooks, 74-75; Oberholtzer, 67-68;
Coffin, 88-89; Tarbell i, 128-130; Herndon i, 161-163; Joshua
F. Speed, in Oldroyd, 143-145. There are unimportant variations
in the conclusion of the speech as quoted from Speed by Herndon,
and as contributed by Speed to the Memorial.
28. Raymond, 27; Browne, 140; Herndon i, 159-160; Works i, 7-8.
There is a slight difference between the version published by
Herndon and that published in the Works.
29. A speech delivered by Lincoln, at Springfield, some time during
December, 1839, in the course of a formal political debate, is the
only one of this canvass that has been preserved entire.
30. Arnold, 49-50; Lamon, 189-190; Herndon i, 185-186; Coffin,
98-99; Brooks, 75-76; French, 59-60. Arnold and Lamon place
this incident in 1836; but Herndon, who bases his statement on
the manuscript of Lincoln's associate, Ninian W. Edwards,
assigns it to 1840.
31. Herndon i, 186-188; Lamon, 230-231; Nicolay & Hay i, 171-
172; Coffin, 99-101; Arnold, 67-68; Brooks, 88; Oberholtzer,
pp. 57-71 NOTES TO CHAPTER II 447
66-67. Possibly Mr. Herndon had this scene in mind when he
said to Thomas Hicks, the painter, some time in the summer of
1860: —
" Lincoln never had any personal fear, and he has the courage of
a lion. In the old political struggles in this State, I have seen him
go upon the platform when a dozen revolvers were drawn on him ;
but before he had spoken twenty words they would go back into
the pockets of their owners. And such were the methods of his
eloquence that, likely as not, these men would be the first to shake
hands with him when he came among them after the meeting."
— Rice, 604.
32. U. F. Linder, in Browne, 175-176; HoUand, 96.
33. This recalls Rosalind's play on words: "You'll be rotton ere
you be half ripe, and that 's the right virtue of the medlar." — As
You Like It iii, 2.
34. Lamon, 230; Nicolay & Hay i, 172; Browne, 176-177.
35. The " Long Nine " comprised: Assemblymen Ninian W. Ed-
wards, Robert Lang Wilson, Daniel Stone, William F. Elkins,
John Dawson, Andrew McCormick, and Abraham Lincoln; Sen-
ators Archer G. Herndon, and Job Fletcher, Sr. They averaged
over six feet in height, and over two hundred pounds in weight.
36. Robert L. Wilson, in Herndon i, 168, and in Lamon, 200.
37. In the Sangamo Journal of January 28, 1837.
38. Browne, 147-148; Whitney, 33.
39. Herndon i, 188-189; Lamon, 231.
40. Tarbell i, 155-157.
41. The Lost Townships articles, with the correspondence that re-
sulted therefrom, are to be found complete in Herndon i, 219-245,
and in Lamon, 253-269.
42. This attitude recalls that of Alexander Hamilton. On the eve of
his fatal duel with Aaron Burr, he wrote : —
" To those who, with me, abhorring the practice of dueling, may
think that I ought on no account to have added to the number of
bad examples, I answer that my relative situation, as well in pub-
lic as private, enforcing all the considerations which constitute
what men of the world denominate honor, imposed on me (as I
thought) a peculiar necessity not to decline the call."
Henry Clay, who fought several duels, said in somewhat the same
strain: —
" The man with a high sense of honor and nice sensibility, when
the question is whether he shall fight or have the finger of scorn
pointed at him, is unable to resist; and few, very few, are found
willing to adopt such an alternative."
43. Said to be Bloody Island, which owed its gruesome name to the
fact that many duels had been fought there.
448 NOTES TO CHAPTER II pp. 72-78
44. Edward Levis, in Tarbell i, 189-190.
45. William Butler, who, with Dr. Merryman, represented Lincoln in
the Shields affair.
46. Works i, 71; Lamon, 252; Herndon i, 245.
47. Herndon i, 246.
48. Whitney, 36.
49. McClure's Magazine vi, 528.
60. Herndon i, 217.
51. A garbled though friendly version, published during the canvass
in a Chicago newspaper and probably elsewhere, was reprinted
in Bartlett's Campaign Life of Lincoln ; but it appears to have
attracted little or no attention.
52. Carpenter, 304-305.
63. See: Holland, 88-89; Arnold, 70; Whitney, 35; Browne, 185;
French, 88-89; Lamon, 269; Stoddard, 116; Carpenter, 303;
Irelan xvii, 656-658, 661-662; Leland, 55.
64. Carpenter, 302-303.
55. Irelan xvii, 660-661.
56. Davidson, 625-626.
57. Herndon i, 246; Brooks, 93; Holland, 89; Arnold, 71; Nicolay,
68; Curtis 's Lincoln, 42-43; Nicolay & Hay i, chap. xii. For an
account of the episode from the other point of view, see Condon,
44-50.
68. One other slight quarrel that occurred, previous to this, exhibited
Lincoln at its conclusion in somewhat of the mood that later be-
came characteristic of him. While at Lawrenceville, HI., in Octo-
ber, 1840, he had an altercation with one W. G. Anderson. The
nature of the dispute is not known. The only facts concerning it
are to be found in the letters exchanged at the time. Anderson, in
one of those stiffly formal notes that usually figured in " affairs of
honor," threw no light upon the cause of the quarrel, but styled
Lincoln " the aggressor " and demanded an explanation. Lincoln's
reply reads rather like an apology to himself than to his corre-
spondent. He wrote : —
" In the difficulty between us of which you speak, you say you
think I was the aggressor. I do not think I was. You say my
* words imported insult.' I meant them as a fair set-off to your
own statements, and not otherwise; and in that light alone I now
wish you to understand them. You ask for my present ' feelings on
the subject.' I entertain no unkind feeling to you, and none of any
sort upon the subject, except a sincere regret that I permitted
myself to get into any such altercation." For both letters, see
Century Magazine, n. s. xv, 477.
69. Nicolay & Hay i, 212 ; Brooks, 94.
pp. 81-90 NOTES TO CHAPTER III 449
NOTES TO CHAPTER IH
1. Lamon, 232-236; Herndon i, 182-183; Browne, 173-174; Nico-
lay & Hay i, 172-177.
2. For the speech in full, see Works i, 21. Douglas frequently
spelled his name, in the early days, with the double " s."
3. Lincoln was a candidate on the Whig electoral ticket.
4. Lamon, 236; Browne, 174-175.
5. Judge Gillespie, in Herndon i, 189-190; Lamon, 237.
6. Herndon i, 192-215; Lamon, 238-243; Irelan xvii, 647-654;
Keckley, 228-230. The marriage took place November 4, 1842.
7. He was, as usual, a candidate on the Whig electoral ticket.
8. Lamon, 340-341; Herndon ii, 30-31; Irelan xvi, 172-173.
9. In a speech delivered at Springfield, 111., on October 23, 1849,
and published in the State Register of November 8.
10. " I passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act myself. I had the authority
and power of a dictator, throughout the whole controversy, in
both houses." — Douglas to Cutts, in Cutts, 122; Brown's Doug-
las, 90.
11. "The author of the bill was regarded with execration; his mid-
dle name was Arnold, and this suggested a comparison to Bene-
dict Arnold. The term which is used in every Christian land as a
synonym of traitor was likewise applied to him, and one hundred
and three ladies of an Ohio village sent him thirty pieces of silver.
He could travel, as he afterwards said, " from Boston to Chicago
by the light of his own effigies." ^- Rhodes i, 496.
12. For Douglas's own entertaining account of the affair, see Cutts,
97-101.
13. Nicolay & Hay i, 378-379.
14. Nicolay & Hay i, 374-380; Herndon ii, 36-38; Arnold, 117-
118; Lamon, 348-350; Brooks, 136-140; Holland, 135-139; Stod-
dard, 141-142 ; Browne, 246-248.
15. Weldon's Reminiscences, in Rice, 199.
16. Works i, 180.
17. Arnold, 118-119; Herndon ii, 42; Lamon, 358; Brooks, 141.
See also W. M. Dickson, in Harper's Magazine Ixix, 64.
18. Whitney, 29. See also Bartlett, 67-69.
19. Lincoln, doubtless considering himself thus absolved from his
part of the agreement, spoke in Urbana, shortly thereafter.
20. " It is true that, owing to the popularity of their candidate for
State Treasurer, the Democrats carried the State ticket, and Doug-
las made the most of it ; but the Anti-Nebraska people elected
five out of nine Congressmen, and their majority in the State on the
Congressional vote was more than seventeen thousand. They also
controlled the legislature." — Rhodes ii, 62.
450 NOTES TO CHAPTER III pp. 90-93
21. He had been elected to this legislature contrary to his wishes,
and he had resigned that he might be eligible to the senatorship.
22. The first ballot, according to Sheahan (275), stood: Lincoln, 45;
Shields, 41; Trumbull, 5; Koerner, 2; Ficklin, 1; Denning, 1;
Ogden, 1 ; Kellogg, 1 ; Edwards, 1 ; and Matteson, 1.
23. " I regret my defeat moderately, but I am not nervous about
it. I could have headed off every combination and been elected,
had it not been for Matteson's double game — and his defeat
now gives me more pleasure than my own gives me pain. On the
whole, it is perhaps as well for our general cause that Trumbull is
elected. The Nebraska men confess that they hate it worse than
anything that could have happened. It is a great consolation to
see them worse whipped than I am. I tell them it is their own
fault — that they had abundant opportunity to choose between him
and me, which they declined, and instead forced it on me to decide
between him and Matteson." — Lincoln to Congressman Elihu B.
Washburne, February 9, 1855.
24. The Dred Scott decision, the Kansas constitution, and the Utah
rebellion were the questions debated.
25. In the presidential election of 1856, the popular votes of Fr^
mont and Fillmore combined amounted to 2,215,798. Buchanan,
though elected, had but 1,838,169, plus the eight electoral votes
of South Carolina cast by its legislature. Illinois gave him 105,-
348; and the two other candidates, 133,633.
26. William A. Richardson, Douglas's political lieutenant in Illinois,
who had introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in the House, had
been Douglas's nominee for the governorship of the State, the
previous autumn. His defeat, by Colonel William H. Bissell, the
Republican candidate, is the execution referred to.
27. Barrett, 139; Howells, 179; Works i, 231.
28. Their attitude is thus explained by one of them : —
" Desirous of breaking the iron rule of the Democratic Party,
so long wielded, and with such terrible effect, by the Slave Power,
they not unnaturally felt that no voice and no arm could be more
potent in producing such a result than the voice and arm of Mr.
Douglas, if triumphantly returned to his place in the Senate by
the aid of Republican support." — Wilson ii, 568.
Henry Villard, who reported the ensuing debates as special
correspondent for the New York Staats-Zeitung, says in this con-
nection : —
"I believed, with many prominent leaders of the Republican
Party, that, with regard to separating more effectively the anti-
slavery Northern from the pro-slavery Southern wing of the De-
mocracy, it would have been better if the reelection of Douglas
had not been opposed." — Villard i, 94.
pp. 93-95 NOTES TO CHAPTER III 451
29. Theodore Parker, with a keen insight into the situation, wrote to
William H. Herudon from Boston, under date of August 28, 1858:
" I never recommended the Republicans to adopt Douglas into
their family. I said in a speech last January, ♦ he is a mad dog ';
just now he is barking at the wolf which has torn our sheep. But
he himself is more dangerous than the wolf. I think I should not
let him into the fold." — Weiss ii, 240.
30. *' Douglas had three or four very distinguished men, of the most
extreme anti-slavery views of any men in the Republican Party,
expressing their desire for his reelection to the Senate last year.
That would, of itself, have seemed to be a little wonderful, but
that wonder is heightened, when we see that Wise of Virginia, a
man exactly opposed to them, a man who believes in the divine
right of slavery, was also expressing his desire that Douglas should
be reelected; that another man that may be said to be kindred
to Wise, Mr. Breckinridge, the Vice-President, and of your own
State, was also agreeing with the anti-slavery men in the North,
that Douglas ought to be reelected. Still, to heighten the wonder,
a senator from Kentucky, whom I have always loved with an
afEection as tender and endearing as I have ever loved any man,
who was opposed to the anti-slavery men for reasons which seemed
suf&cient to him, and equally opposed to Wise and Breckinridge,
was writing letters into Illinois to secure the reelection of Douglas.
Now, that all these conflicting elements should be brought, while
at dagger's points with one another, to support him, is a feat that
is worthy for you to note and consider. It is quite probable that
each of these classes of men thought, by the reelection of Douglas,
their peculiar views would gain something; it is probable that the
anti-slavery men thought their views would gain something; that
Wise and Breckinridge thought so too, as regards" their opinions;
that Mr. Crittenden thought that his views would gain something,
although he was opposed to both these other men. It is probable
that each and all of them thought that they were using Douglas;
and it is yet an unsolved problem whether he was not using them
all." — Lincoln, addressing himself to Kentuckians, in the Cincin-
nati speech, September 17, 1859. Works i, 568-569.
31. Herndon ii, 60.
32. The nomination of a candidate for the United States Senate by
a State convention was without precedent, as the election was
to be in the hands, not of the people, but of the legislature then
about to be chosen.
33. Debates, 1^; Works i, 240-245; Barrett, 145-152; Holland,
161-167; Raymond, 52-58; Arnold, 132-138; Irelan xvi, 203-
211; Lamon, 399-405; Sheahan, 401^05.
34. Debates, 5-13; Flint, 105-114; Sheahan, 406-415.
452 NOTES TO CHAPTER III pp. 96-109
35. For the Chicago, Bloomington, and Springfield speeches in full,
see Debates, 5-64; for the Lincoln speeches only, see Works i,
247-273.
36. Ottawa, August 21; Freeport, August 27; Jonesboro, September
15; Charleston, September 18; Galesburg, October 7; Quincy,
October 13, and Alton, October 15.
37. For the correspondence in reference to the debate, see Irelan xvi,
242-247; Bartlett, 74-79; Debates, 64-66; Works i, 273-277.
38. In 1856. See: Holland, 155-156; Arnold, 144; Lamon, 408^09;
Browne, 283-284.
39. Debates, 55; Works i, 261. See also Browne, 291.
40. W. M. Dickson, in Harper's Magazine Ixix, 64. This complaint
is singularly like that, of classic memory, put by Plutarch in the
mouth of Thucydides. " When I have thrown him," said he,
speaking of Pericles, ** and given him a fair fall, by persisting that
he had no fall, he gets the better of me, and makes the bystanders,
in spite of their own eyes, believe him."
41. Alley's Reminiscences, in Rice, 575.
42. W. M. Dickson, in Harper's Magazine Ixix, 64; Browne, 282.
43. Forney ii, 179.
44. This was essentially true, notwithstanding that at the first Re-
publican National Convention, two years before, Lincoln had,
greatly to his own surprise, received 110 votes — out of 551 — for
the vice-presidential nomination.
45. Tarbell i, 307. See also Whitney, 456-457.
46. Browne, 282. See also what Douglas said after the debate to
Senator Wilson, in Wilson ii, 577.
47. " My father was an ardent personal and political friend of Doug-
las, and in his circle it was looked upon as presumptuous and ridic-
ulous for Abe Lincoln to compete with * the Little Giant ' for the
Senate of the United States." — Fry's Reminiscences, in Rice, 387.
48. For Judge Beckwith's report of the interview, see Tarbell i, 308-
309. Versions less complete are to be found in Arnold, 146-147;
Browne, 284; Brooks, 175-176; CofBn, 168.
49. Slightly condensed. Debates, 296; Works i, 461.
50. See Horace White, in Herndon ii, 102-103.
51. Debates, 105; Works i, 281.
52. Debates, 118; Works i, 292.
53. Debates, 286-287; Works i, 453.
54. Debates, 297-298; Works i, 462.
55. Arnold, 145. See also Horace White, in Herndon ii, 101-102.
56. Debates, 136; Works i, 308.
67. This corresponded with Lincoln's own prognosis of Douglas's
course, expressed four weeks before, in a letter to Henry Asbury.
It read, in part: —
pp. 109-111 NOTES TO CHAPTER III 453
"You shall have hard work to get him directly to the point whether
a territorial legislature has or has not the power to exclude slavery.
But if you succeed in bringing him to it — though he will be com-
pelled to say it possesses no such power — he will instantly take
ground that slavery cannot actually exist in the Territories unless
the people desire it, and so give it protection by territorial legis-
lation. If this offends the South, he will let it ofPend them, as at all
events, he means to hold on to his chances in Illinois." — Works i,
277.
58. Variations in the accounts of these deliberations and their seem-
ing ex post facto character have led cautious writers to regard the
story with suspicion. The essential facts are, however, probably,
as here set forth. See: Arnold, 151; Horace White in Herndon
ii, 109-110; Nicolay & Hay ii,160; Schurz, 51-52 ; Wilson ii, 576;
Irelan xvi, 254; Lamon, 415-416; Holland, 188-189; Swett's
Eulogy, in Whitney, 562; Morse i, 144; Blaine i, 148; Coffin, 168;
Brockett, 106; Brooks, 172-173; Raymond, 66; Bartlett, 81;
Tarbell i, 316-318.
59. It is interesting to note that the only parallel instance in which
he is known to have asked advice had a similar history. This was
at the beginning of the canvass, when, before delivering his house-
divided-against-itself speech, he submitted it to a council of friends,
who all, with one exception, urged him to omit the first paragraph.
Cogent from the politicians' point of view as the objections to it
were, they failed to move Lincoln. He rejected their views, and
made the address exactly as it had been written.
60. To one with whom he discussed his course, some weeks there-
after, Lincoln said: " You can't overturn a pyramid, but you can
undermine it; that's what I have been trying to do." — Locke's
Reminiscences, in Rice, 443. How effectually Lincoln accom-
plished his purpose may be inferred from this incident recorded
by Mr. Hume in his recently published work. The Abolitionists: —
" On a boat that carried a portion of the audience, including the
writer, from Alton to St. Louis, after the debate was over, was a pro-
minent Missouri Democrat, afterwards a Confederate leader, who
expressed himself very freely. He declared that he would rather
trust the institutions of the South to the hands of a conservative
and honest man like * Old Abe,' than to those of * a political jump-
ing-jaek like Douglas.' The most of the other southern men and
slaveholders present seemed to concur in his views." — Hume, 98.
61. Coleman ii, 162-166 ; Whitney, 383-386; Works i, 519-520;
Bartlett, 83-84, 99-100; Nicolay & Hay ii, 142.
62. Nicolay & Hay ii, 146; Savage, 161.
63. Isaac N. Arnold, in Carpenter, 237; Arnold, 146.
64. Greeley, 33; Arnold, more conservative, says $50,000.
454 NOTES TO CHAPTER IV pp. 111-125
65. See Lincoln to Judd, Works i, 520-521; also Arnold, 154; Car-
penter, 237.
66. Lamon's Recollections, 22.
67. Whitney, in Herndon ii, 81. For a version that varies from this
in a few particulars, and for other facts of a similar nature, see
Whitney, 463-465. See also Villard i, 96-97.
68. Lincoln to Judd, Works i, 594.
69. Horace White, in Herndon ii, 127; Lamon, 419; Brooks, 181;
Morse i, 149; Browne, 307; Holland, 194.
70. Works i, 529.
71. Lincoln to Galloway, Works i, 537.
72. Debates, 144; Works i, 315.
73. According to McKee, Lincoln received 1,866,352 votes; Douglas,
1,375,157; Breckinridge, 847,514; and Bell, 587,830. According
to Stanwood, Lincoln received 1,866,452; Douglas, 1,376,957;
Breckinridge, 849,781; and Bell, 588,879. These figures contain
no apportionment of the fusion vote in five States. One analysis
thereof, based on the estimated strength of the several con-
tributing parties, makes Lincoln's total 1,857,610 and Douglas's
1,291,574, giving Lincoln 566,036 votes more than Douglas. For
details, see The American Conflict i, 328, by Horace Greeley, whose
skill in the handling of election returns is generally conceded.
74. Rice, 225-226; Herndon ii, 205-206; Poore ii, 69-70; Arnold,
189-190; Browne, 403-404. "If I can't be President," whispered
Douglas, smiling, to a relative of the Lincolns, *' I at least can
hold his hat." — Tarbell ii, 5.
NOTES TO CHAPTER IV
William H. Seward, Abraham Lincoln, Simon Cameron, Salmon
P. Chase, Edward Bates, William L. Dayton, John McLean, Jacob
Collamer, Benjamin F. Wade, Charles Sumner, John C. Frdmont,
and John M. Reed.
. These were, to use their common titles: Free-soilers, Whigs,
Know-Nothings, Anti-Slavery Democrats, and Abolitionists.
, Some of Seward's admirers, in fact, never became entirely recon-
ciled to the action of the Convention. Almost thirteen years there-
after, Charles Francis Adams, in an address before the New York
legislature, said : —
" The veteran champion of the reforming policy was set aside
in favor of a gentleman as little known by anything he had ever
done as the most sanguine friend of such a selection could desire.
The fact is beyond contradiction that no person, ever before nomi-
nated with any reasonable probability of success, had had so little
pp. 125-129 NOTES TO CHAPTER IV 455
of public service to show for his reward. Placing myself in the
attitude of Mr. Seward, at the moment when the news of so strange
a decision would reach his ears, I think I might, like Jaques, in
the play, have moralized for an instant on man's ingratitude, and
been warned by the example of Aristides, or even the worse fate
of Barneveld and the two De Witts, not to press further in a
career in which the strong were to be ostracized, because of their
strength, and the weak were to be pushed into places of danger,
on account of their nothingness." — Adams, 23. Four years later,
in 1877, Richard Grant White wrote: —
" Mr. Seward saw the crown of his life petulantly snatched from
him and given to — no matter whom, if not to him — but to one
who had done nothing to merit it, and who was so unknown to the
majority of his countrymen that his identity had to be explained
to them." — North American Review cxxiv, 226.
4. Baker iv, 683.
5. Seward i, 454; Baker iv, 79-80.
6. Seward i, 454. ^
7. Oldroyd, 474. Speaking of this interview. Fell said, " There we
sat down, and in the calm twilight of the evening, had substantially
the following conversation." See also Weed, 606; Browne, 366.
8. In a conversation with Joseph Medill, during the spring of 1855,
at the office of the Chicago Tribune. See Philadelphia Saturday
Evening Post, August 5, 1899.
9. Lincoln to Seward, December 8, 1860, in Works i, 657.
10. It should be noted, however, that in so doing Lincoln followed
the example set by a number of his predecessors, who had thus
honored prominent rivals for the presidential nomination, or for
the office itself. President Madison had appointed his competitor,
Monroe; and President John Quincy Adams had appointed Clay.
President Harrison had offered the State Department to that same
leader, and upon his declination, to Webster. President Polk had
appointed Buchanan, President Pierce had appointed Marcy, and
President Buchanan had appointed Cass.
11. Works i, 657; Nicolay & Hay iii, 349.
12. There appears to have been a doubt in Weed's mind as to
whether Indiana was represented, in the tentative list, by Caleb
B. Smith or Colonel Henry S. Lane, both ex- Whigs.
13. Weed, 610.
14. Morse i, 379.
15. " About two o'clock on Wednesday morning sufficient informa-
tion had come in to leave no doubt of his election. He then retired,
but hardly to sleep. Although fatigued and exhausted, he got but
little rest. Oppressed with the overwhelming responsibility that
was upon him, which in the excitement of the campaign he bad not
456 NOTES TO CHAPTER IV pp. 130-135
fully realized, he felt the necessity of relief and assistance to sus-
tain him in the not distant future. . . . He did not again sleep
until he had constructed the framework of his cabinet. It was
essentially the same as that with which four months later he com-
menced his administration." — Lincoln's own account of the mat-
ter to his Secretary of the Navy, in Welles, 37-38, See also
Welles, 34; Carpenter, 223; Rhodes iii, 319-320; Nicolay &Hay
iii, 345-347, 372.
16. Nicolay and Hay iii, 370; Lothrop, 247.
17. Lamon's Kecollections, 49-51. See also The Diary of a Public
Man, North American Review cxxix, 271-273.
18. Nicolay and Hay iii, 370; Lothrop, 248.
19. Works ii, 7-8; Nicolay and Hay iii, 371.
20. "After the supper, when the [inauguration] ball had become
more like a dance, I handed Mrs. Lincoln her bouquet and ven-
tured to congratulate the President upon his improved health.
He responded so cordially that I was emboldened to ask whether
he had any special news that I might send to Mr. Bennett, the
editor of the New York Herald. ' Yes,' he replied, looking at me
significantly, * you may tell him that Thurlow Weed has found out
that Seward was not nominated at Chicago.' This was very old
news, another 'Lincoln joke,' and I smiled and took my leave.
But on my way to the telegraph office the joke assumed most
serious proportions. It meant, on the authority of the President
himself, that Weed's secret intrigues to become the power behind
the cabinet had been exposed and defeated ; that Chase was to
remain Secretary of the Treasury and master of the situation ;
that the sceptre of political power had passed forever from New
York and the South to the great West, and that Lincoln was to
be President in fact as well as in name. So tremendous was the
importance of this ' joke ' that it crowded out for a day the de-
scription that I had previously telegraphed of the costumes at
the curious ball which ended the first inauguration of President
Lincoln." — Stephen Fiske, in the Ladies' Home Journal xiv, 4.
21. Seward i, 487, 491, 497, 518.
22. It has been especially noted that the address was read by Judge
David Davis, in Springfield; by Orville H. Browning, in Indian-
apolis; and by Francis Preston Blair, Sr., in Washington.
23. For the first inaugural address in full, see Holland, 279; Irelan
xvi, 421; Raymond, 162; McPherson, 105; Barrett, 203; Brockett,
237; Works ii, 1; Richardson vi, 5; Nicolay & Hay iii, 327-344.
In the last-named volume will also be found Mr. Seward's sug-
gestions.
24. Seward i, 512; Nicolay & Hay iii, 320.
25. " The Godlike Daniel " was especially hard upon poor Harri-
pp. 136-141 NOTES TO CHAPTER IV 457
son's classical allusions. Returning home in the evening after his
arduous session with the blue pencil, Mr. Webster looked so wor-
ried and fatigued that a friend asked him whether anything amiss
had happened. " You would think that something had happened,"
he answered, " if you knew what I have done. I have killed seven-
teen Roman proconsuls."
26. Samuel Bowles to H. L. Dawes, in Merriam i, 318.
27. Black, 156.
28. Welles, 49-50.
29. Mrs. Lincoln to William H. Herndon, in Herndon ii, 223.
30. This is missing from the files. For references to it, see: Records!,
191, 196, 197, 200; Works ii, 9, 15; Nicolay & Hay iii, 376-377;
Crawford, 353, 355, 363; Buchanan, 211-214.
31. Records, series i, vol. i, 202.
32. Nicolay & Hay iii, 378; Lincoln to Scott, in Works ii, 9.
33. Secretary Chase is sometimes said to have joined Mr. Blair, at
the outset, in advocating a relief expedition; but there is no con-
clusive evidence that he did so, and there is ground for a contrary
belief. See Welles, 56; Crawford, 364-367; Warden, 371 ; Rhodes
iii, 343; Cox, 63; McClure, 52; Hart, 209-210. Mr. Chase, it
should be added, however, at an early date expressed the opinion
that the President's oath of office " seemed to bind him to support
Major Anderson." — Chase to Wirt, March 10, 1861, in Warden,
373 ; in Schuckers, 422. On March 16, 1861, he declared for pro-
visioning Sumter. See also Chase to Black in Crawford, 367.
34. Tarbell ii, 16.
35. Message of July 4, 1861. Works ii, 56; Richardson vi, 21.
36. Speech of January 12, 1861. Baker iv, 666.
37. Commissioners Forsyth and Crawford to the Confederate Secre-
tary of State. See Crawford, 322.
38. On the 10th of April, Seward wrote to Charles Francis Adams,
our Minister to Great Britain : —
" Firmness on the part of the government in maintaining and
preserving the public institutions and property, and in executing
the laws where authority can be exercised without waging war,
combined with such measures of justice, moderation, and forbear-
ance as will disarm reasoning opposition, will be sufficient to
secure the public safety until returning reflection, concurring with
the fearful experience of social evils, the inevitable fruits of fac-
tion, shall bring the recusant members cheerfully back into the
family, which, after all, must prove their best and happiest, as it
undeniably is their most natural home. The constitution of the
United States provides for that return by authorizing Congress,
on application to be made by a certain majority of the States, to
assemble a National Convention, in which the organic law can, if it
458 NOTES TO CHAPTER IV pp. ,41-144
be needful, be revised so as to remove all real obstacles to a reunion,
so suitable to the habits of the people and so eminently conducive
to the common safety and welfare." — Diplomatic History, 205.
39. " The impression undoubtedly left upon my mind was that the
new administration would not resort to coercion. This was still
further strengthened by the voluntary pledge of honor of Mr.
Seward, in the presence of Mr. Taylor of Washington, and Messrs.
Rives and Somers, that there should be no collision. ' Nay,' said
he to me, ' if this whole matter is not satisfactorily settled within
sixty days after I am seated in the saddle, and hold the reins firmly
in my hand, I will give you my head for a football.' These were
the identical words used, as I put them on paper in less than two
hours after they were uttered." — C. S. Morehead to John J. Crit-
tenden, in Coleman ii, 338.
40. At the suggestion of O. H. Browning. The clause cut out ran: —
" All the power at my disposal will be used to reclaim the pub-
lic property and places which have fallen." See Nicolay & Hay
iii, 333. Notwithstanding the omission, keen students of the inau-
gural address had no difficulty in still reading the suppressed part
between the lines. On March 5, L. Q. Washington wrote from
the Capital to the Confederate Secretary of War; —
'* I was present last evening at a consultation of southern gen-
tlemen, at which Messrs. Crawford, Garnett, Pryor, De Jarnette
of Virginia, and Wigfall of Texas, were present. We all put the
same construction on the inaugural, which we carefully went over
together. We agreed that it was Lincoln's purpose at once to
attempt the collection of the revenue, to reenforce and hold Fort
Sumter and Pickens, and to retake the other places. He is a man
of will and firmness." — Records, series i, vol. i, 263.
41. Works ii, 56; Morse i, 244-245; Crawford, 346-347; Lothrop,
253; Nicolay & Hay iii, 379, 381-382; Buchanan, 171.
42. Works ii, 11-22, where all the answers are published in full.
43. John Forsyth of Alabama; Martin J. Crawford of Georgia; and
A. B. Roman of Louisiana.
44. He was accompanied on several occasions by his associate, Jus-
tice Nelson. The other go-betweens were Gwin of California and
Hunter of Virginia.
45. " About this time, my wife, who was in Washington, was very
much surprised at receiving a call from the President. He came
quietly to request her to show him my letters from Fort Sumter,
so that he might form a better opinion as to the condition of
affairs there, more particularly in regard to our resources." — Gen-
eral Doubleday. Doubleday, 130.
46. The opinions are to be found in Nicolay & Hay iii, 430-432.
47. Records, series i, vol. i, 226-227.
pp. 144-147 NOTES TO CHAPTER IV 459
48. " I was at the White House one evening," says Assistant Secre-
tary of the Treasury George Harrington, " and found there, with
the President, Mr. Welles, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Montgomery Blair,
and ere they separated it was determined to relieve and provision
Fort Sumter. I went to Mr. Seward and informed him of the fact,
which, though, as he said, 'difficult to believe,' he subsequently
found to be true." See Crawford, 368.
49. The student who desires to follow the episode of the Confederate
Commissioners, through all its devious windings, will find some of
the clues, at least, in the following works; Crawford, 314-345;
Rhodes iii, 328-340; Welles, 56; Ropes i, 80-81; Morse i, 238-
240, 245; Lothrop, 258-275; American Conflict i, 430-436, 632;
McPherson, 108-112; Nicolay's Outbreak, 54-57; Blaine i, 292-
294; Irelanxvi, 491-503; Seward i, 530-531, 637-538; Cox, 146-
148; Moore i. Doc. 42-44, 426-428; Nicolay & Hay iii, 396^14;
Records, series i, vol. li, part ii, supplement, p. 8; series i, vol. liii,
supplement, pp. 161-164; Stephens ii, 345-355, 735-746; Greg ii,
216-222; Davis i, 263-281, 675-685; StovaU, 222-226; Bancroft
ii, 93-132.
50. It should be borne in mind that there is no warrant for the recent
fashion of calling cabinet officers " the President's constitutional
advisers." They are merely heads of departments, whom he con-
sults, or not, as seems best to him. When he does ask their opinions,
he casts the deciding vote, however they may stand; because in
him, alone, rests the authority and the responsibility, not only for
his own course, but for their executive acts, as well.
51. The standard of Spain had just been raised in Santo Domingo ;
and France had poorly disguised the hostility toward the Union
which culminated later in her efforts to force European interven-
tion upon the North. Great Britain, France, and Spain, in the
interests of their subjects who had suffered from the revolutions
in Mexico, were contemplating the invasion which later placed
Maximilian upon a throne in that country. Russia had been invited
to join her continental neighbors in their policy of American inter-
ference. She had refused to do so, but her attitude, friendly to the
northern cause throughout the war, was not yet understood, at
this time, in the State Department.
52. Seward i, 535; Works ii, 29-30; Nicolay & Hay iii, 445-447.
53. Seward's method on this occasion differed widely from that of
an eminent predecessor in the State Department. When Secretary
Van Buren wished to engineer a difficult scheme, he would, as Sen-
ator Poindexter relates, hint at it in President Jackson's presence.
The General would say, " Eh ! " and " the wizard " would adroitly
change the subject. Soon Van Buren would allude to it again,
whereupon Jackson would ask, " How 's that ? " And again would
46o NOTES TO CHAPTER IV pp. 147-149
come an evasive answer. By this time the President had been
set thinking, so that when next the subject was broached, he would
advocate the Secretary's plan, himself. Then Van Bureu would ex-
claim, " What a grand, a glorious idea ! No man in the land would
have thought of it but yourself."
54. Secretary Seward's attack of Jingoism, though violent, was not
of long duration. His theory that a foreign war would cement the
Union had been foreshadowed by his speech, at the dinner of
the New England Society in New York, on December 22, 1860.
Though the idea was not, at the time, supported by other popular
leaders, the people had thus, in a way, been prepared for its formal
presentation. After the administration entered office, newspaper
articles and the speeches of public men abounded in suggestions
of hostilities against violaters of the Monroe Doctrine. As late
as January, 1865, we jBnd Francis Preston Blair, Sr., seeking at
Richmond to unite the North and the South in a Mexican crusade,
and the Confederate Vice-President, Alexander H. Stephens, mak-
ing a similar proposition, a few weeks later, to President Lincoln,
at the Fortress Monroe conference.
55. By a singular coincidence Mr. Seward had made the same reply
four days before to Dr. Russell, the correspondent of the London
Times. Russell, 40.
56. Works ii, 30; Nicolay & Hay iii, 448^49. See also Conway i,
350-351.
57. Mr. Lincoln's method of maintaining his authority over his first
cabinet officer was in striking contrast to that of the Confederate
President, a few months later, under almost parallel conditions.
R. M. T. Hunter, the southern Secretary of State, like his
northern prototype, had been a first choice for the presidency. He,
too, took office under his successful competitor, and, like Mr.
Seward, volunteered unwelcome counsel. But there the similarity
ceased, for his chief, instead of retaining this valuable minister
and bending him to his will, so grossly insulted the offender as to
render his continuance in the administration impossible. " There
had been a disgraceful quarrel in the cabinet," says the biographer
of Mr. Davis, " and when Mr. Hunter had offered some advice
about the conduct of the war, Mr. Davis had said with a flushed
and almost insolent manner: ' Mr. Hunter, you are Secretary of
State, and when information is wanted of that particular depart-
ment, it will be time for you to speak.' The spirited Virginian
next day sent in his resignation." See Pollard, 150-151.
58. Seward i, 590.
59. Mr. Seward's manner of monopolizing the President's attention
is illustrated in an anecdote told by General Egbert L. Viele, who
visited Mr. Lincoln to lay a certain document before him. " As I
pp. 149-152 NOTES TO CHAPTER IV 461
entered the room," relates the General, " Secretary Seward came
in with some important despatches, and took his seat alongside
the President, just as I had handed him the paper I wanted him
to look at. Secretary Seward, with an air of impatience, took it out
of the President's hand and handed it back to me, saying, * Some
other time — I have important business with the President.' Mr.
Lincoln said, 'Not so fast, Seward,' taking back the document
from him, ' I want to hear what Viele has to say about this mat-
ter.' " — Ward, 121.
60. By a remarkable coincidence, Mr. Seward, as a friend and dis-
ciple of Mr. Adams's father, had twenty-five years before per-
formed a similar duty over John Quincy Adams. Not only had
the earlier oration been delivered in the same city, and during the
same month of the year, as the later one, but also at the invita-
tion of the New York legislature. Nor did the parallel end there,
for Mr. Seward had claimed, in 1848, that his hero, as Secretary
of State under President Monroe, " swayed the government "; and
the son of The Old Man Eloquent, in 1873, made the almost
identical plea, as we have seen, on behalf of his father's eulogist.
61. Mr. Chase was still alive when the address was delivered; but
he died within three weeks thereafter, and before a joint state-
ment, contemplated by the three ministers, could be prepared.
62. Welles, 9, 79. To ascribe the control of Presidents to certain of
their cabinet officers is not a novelty in American history. Ham-
ilton was said to have ruled Washington; John Quincy Adams,
Monroe; and Van Buren, Jackson.
63. Seward i, 528; Lothrop, 361.
64. Seward i, 511.
65. The letter as completed by Mr. Seward and sent to Mr. Adams
is published in the Diplomatic History, 241-245. The draft as
submitted to Mr. Lincoln and his corrections are to be found in
Nicolay & Hay iv, 270-275; Works ii, 48-51. The introduction
to Rice's Reminiscences contains the corrected despatch and an
autograph facsimile of it, as it left the President's hands. See also
Foster, 360-363.
66. Pierce iv, 121; Welles, 161.
67. " He parted with his temper now and then, when friends pressed
him to perform impossibilities, as, for example, on the occasion of
a visit from leading New York Republicans of his type, who com-
plained that their followers were not receiving a due share of fed-
eral patronage. It was reported and believed that he broke into a
rage, exclaiming, in substance, ' Why come to me about this ? Go
to the White House ! I, who by every right ought to have been
chosen President ! What am I now ? Nothing but Abe Lincoln's
little clerk ! '" — Stanton, 222-223.
462 NOTES TO CHAPTER V pp. 153-157
68. Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederate States;
R. M. T. Hunter, Confederate Senator and Confederate Ex-Secre-
tary of State; John A. Campbell, Ex-Justice of the United States
Supreme Court and Confederate Assistant Secretary of War.
69. Brockett, 575; Raymond, 657; McPlierson, 568; Nicolay & Hay
X, 115; Works ii, 633, 644-645; Stephens ii, 798; Richardson vi, 264.
70. Records, series i, vol. xlvi, part ii, 342-343; Stephens ii, 800;
Raymond, 659; Works ii, 635, 646-647; Nicolay & Hay x, 116-
117; Richardson vi, 266-267; McPherson, 568.
71. Gilmore, 50; Herndon ii, 222; Pierce iv, 195 note. See also
Hamlin, 495.
72. On the 4th of June, 1861, R. H. Dana wrote to C. F. Adams,
then in England : —
" Sumner has spent ten days at Washington, and comes back as
full of denunciations of Mr. Seward as ever. He gave me some
anxiety, as I listened to him, lest he was in a heated state of brain.
He cannot talk five minutes without bringing in Mr. Seward, and
always in bitter terms of denunciation. I mention this to you
because I have reason to believe that his correspondence with
England (which is large, and in influential quarters) and his con-
versations with the foreign diplomats at Washington are in the
same style. His mission is to expose and denounce Mr. Seward,
and into that mission he puts all his usual intellectual and moral
energy." — Adams's Dana ii, 258-259.
73. Hamilton, 530; Warden, 467-468; Chase Papers, 72-73.
74. Seward ii, 196-197, 225; Bancroft ii, 403-406; Diplomatic His-
tory, 514. But see also Welles, 80-85.
75. " In due time, gentlemen of the jury, when I shall have paid the
debt of nature, my remains will rest here in your midst, with
those of my kindred and neighbors. It is very possible they may
be unhonored, neglected, spurned ! But, perhaps, years hence, when
the passion and excitement which now agitate this community shall
have passed away, some wandering stranger, some lone exile, some
Indian, some negro, may erect over them an humble stone, and
thereon this epitaph, * He was faithfuV " — Defence of the negro,
Freeman, tried for murder, in 1846. — Seward's Autobiography,
822.
NOTES TO CHAPTER V
1. Chase was one of the founders of the Cincinnati Lyceum, before
which he, himself, delivered four lectures. Two of these had the
honor of appearing in the North American Review. He also com-
piled and published, in three volumes, the Statutes of Ohio, an ad-
mirable piece of work, that won for him praise from high quarters.
pp. 158-168 NOTES TO CHAPTER V 463
2. " The writer hereof was a witness to one incident that showed
something of the loss that Mr. Chase sustained in a business way
because of his principles. While a law student in a country village
he was sent down to Cincinnati to secure certain testimony in the
form of affidavits. During his visit he called at Mr. Chase's law
office, introduced himself, and was very pleasantly received. He
noticed that there was a notary public in the office. Among other
instructions he had been directed to get the affidavit of a leading
business man in Cincinnati, a railroad president. The document
was prepared and signed, but there was no one at hand before
whom it could be sworn to. The writer remarked that he knew
where there was a notary in a nearby office. We proceeded to Mr.
Chase's chambers, and were about to enter, when my companion
noticed the name on the door. He fell back as if he had been struck
in the face. ' The Abolitionist ! ' he exclaimed, * I would n't
enter his place for a hundred dollars ! ' We went elsewhere for our
business, and on the way my companion expressed himself about
Mr. Chase. ' What a pity it is,' he said, ' that that young man is
ruining himself. He is a bright man,' he went on, ' and I employed
him professionally until he went daft on the subject of freeing the
niggers whom the Lord made for the purpose of serving the white
people.' " — Hume, 63.
3. Lincoln to Galloway, July 28, 1859, and March 24, 1860, in
Works i, 538, 632; Schuckers, 201; Hart, 187-188; Rhodes ii,
338; Nicolay & Hay i, 368-369.
4. Ante, pp. 126-127: This view, so far as it related to Chase, was
slightly modified, however, as Lincoln's chances for the nomination
improved. See the letter to Galloway of July 28, 1859, Works i, 538.
5. "After the second ballot, I whispered to Cartter, of Ohio: 'If
you can throw the Ohio delegation for Lincoln, Chase can have
anything he wants.' * H-how d-d' ye know ? ' stuttered Cartter. * I
know, and you know I would n't promise if I did n't know.' So
Cartter got up and announced eighteen or nineteen votes of Ohio
for Lincoln. Giddings challenged the vote, but on the poll it was
found that Cartter had n't ' nigged ' more than one or two votes.
That settled the nomination of Lincoln." — Interview with Joseph
Medill in Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post, August 5, 1899.
6. Schuckers, 201; Nicolay & Hay iii, 359. But see Warden, 364-
365.
7. Hart, 203.
8. Said to have been based on a paper prepared by Joshua R. Gid-
dings.
9. Lincoln's entire estate, at the time, consisted of his home with its
contents, in Springfield ; a lot which had been presented to him, in
the town of Lincoln; and 160 acres of wild land in Iowa granted
464 NOTES TO CHAPTER V pp. 168-191
by Congress for military services during the Black Hawk War.
Herndon i, 91-92; Lamon's Recollections, 20; Whitney, 26; La-
mon, 472; Arnold, 83.
10. This neglect of financial problems was not unlike that of Prince
Bismarck in his early days. " Formerly," said he, " I never con-
cerned myself seriously with economic questions, and should not
have known what to say had any one asked me as to the state of
Swedish iron. I should, in fact, have felt like Rothschild, when
once applied to by a business man for his opinion on thesame sub-
ject. ' Meyer,' said Rothschild, turning in some embarrassment to
one of his clerks, ' Meyer, what is my opinion about Swedish iron ? ' "
11. Lamon's Recollections, 215-217.
12. House Report No. 140, 38th Congress, 1st Session.
13. Piatt's Thomas, 442.
14. Schuckers, 424.
15. To Edwin D. Mansfield of Morrow, Ohio, in Schuckers, 439.
16. To Enoch T. Carson of Cincinnati, in Schuckers, 451-452.
17. Chase Papers, 74; Warden, 469.
18. To William M. Dickson, in Schuckers, 443.
19. To Murat Halstead, in Warden, 549; Schuckers, 393.
20. To O. Follett, in Warden, 491-492.
21. Warden, 593.
22. Nicolay & Hay vi, 255; Warden, 484-485.
23. Hart, 293.
24. Warden, 562.
25. Schuckers, 280.
26. To E. D. Mansfield, in Warden, 565.
27. To A. S. Latty, in Warden, 454.
28. Warden, 385-386.
29. Hart, 262-263.
30. Schuckers, 376-378.
31. Schuckers, 378-379. See also Boutwell i, 308.
32. Chase Papers, 76; Warden, 470.
33. Warden, 564.
34. Major-General David Hunter, in Warden, 505; Chase Papers,
105.
35. Browne, 494-495.
36. Piatt, 117-118; Chase Papers, 87; Schuckers, 453; Warden, 481.
37. Hart, 125.
38. Chase Papers, 83; Warden, 475.
39. Seward ii, 147.
40. Nicolay & Hay vi, 265.
41. Seward ii, 147; Bancroft ii, 367.
42. Nicolay & Hay vi, 266.
43. Senator Trumbull.
pp. 192-203 NOTES TO CHAPTER V 465
44. Nicolay & Hay vi, 268.
45. Seward ii, 148. See also Nicolay & Hay vi, 271; Rhodes iv, 206;
Morse ii, 180.
46. For the correspondence on this subject, in part or entire, see War-
den, 508-510; Schuckers, 489-491; Nicolay & Hay vi, 268-270;
Works ii, 282; Seward ii, 148; Diplomatic History, 15; Morse
ii, 179.
47. It may be of interest to compare the purport of this letter with
that of the one addressed by Washington's Secretary of the Trea-
sury to the President, while the quarrel between Hamilton and
Secretary of State Jefferson was at its height. " If your endeavors
[toward * terminating the differences which exist'] should prove
unsuccessful," wrote Chase's great predecessor, " I do not hesitate
to say, that in my opinion the period is not remote, when the pub-
lic good will require substitutes for the differing members of your
administration. The continuance of a division there must destroy
the energy of government, which will be little enough with the
strictest union. On my part there will be a most cheerful acquies-
cence in such a result." — Hamilton's Works iv, 303-304.
48. Warden, 524; Schuckers, 492; Works ii, 313.
49. Warden, 524-525; Schuckers, 492.
50. The appointment went to J. G. BoUes of Hartford.
51. Warden, 525.
52. Works ii, 334-335.
53. Warden, 528; Schuckers, 493.
54. Lincoln's Time, 120.
65. To Dr. A. G. Henry, Smith's inveterate enemy, Mr. Lincoln
wrote: —
"Governor Chase's feelings were hurt by my action in his absence.
Smith is removed, but Governor Chase wishes to name his successor,
and asks a day or two to make the designation." — Tarbell ii, 364.
56. Field, 303.
57. Committee on Public Expenditures, House Report No. Ill, 38th
Congress, 1st Session; and House Report No. 25, 38th Congress,
2d Session.
58. Field, 305 ; Schuckers, 495-496; Warden, 556.
59. See Lincoln's letter to Chase, February 12, 1864, Works ii, 481;
Schuckers, 498-i99.
60. Field, 304.
61. Chase's conduct in this particular recalls the less scrupulous,
though not more eager, intrigues of William H. Crawford, Mon-
roe's Secretary of the Treasury. Dissimilar as were these two
ambitious finance ministers in character and attainments, the stu-
dent of curious parallels will find several striking points of resem-
blance in their careers. Says Schouler, of Crawford (iii, 17) : —
466 NOTES TO CHAPTER V pp. 204-208
" No sooner, in fact, were his relations to the incoming admin-
istration settled than he began to persuade himself that he had
made a personal sacrifice, and only remained in the cabinet for
prudential and public reasons; and to his friends he showed, thus
early, that he was in neither a grateful nor a docile frame of mind.
. . . Embarrassments arose, through the persistent efforts of
Crawford's friends in Congress; embarrassments traceable to the
instigation of Crawford himself, who staked his chances, first upon
the probable errors of the new administration and his ambitious
associates, and next, upon securing a following in Congress strong
enough to carry the next caucus nomination for himself."
The coincidence between Crawford and Chase, it may be added,
extended beyond the Secretaries themselves to their treatment
by the Presidents whom they sought respectively to supplant;
for both Monroe and Lincoln manifested remarkable forbearance
toward their cabinet rivals.
62. Schuckers, 494.
63. Brooks, 385.
64. Brooks, 385; Browne, 661. See also Works ii, 532.
65. Julian, 243.
66. For the circular, see: Schuckers, 499-500; Nicolay & Hay viii,
319-320; Cyclopedia (1864), 783-784.
67. Warden, 574; Schuckers, 501.
68. Works ii, 489-490; Riddle, 273; Schuckers, 501-502; Warden,
575.
69. Arnold, 194.
70. Arnold, 194.
71. Schuckers, 488.
72. How this was viewed by some of the public men who were
friendly to Mr. Lincoln may be inferred from a conversation, re-
ported by General Butler as having taken place, in the spring of
1864, between Simon Cameron and himself: —
"Is Mr. Chase making any headway in his candidature?" I
asked.
"Yes, some; and he is using the whole power of the Treasury
to help himself."
" Well," said I, "that is the right thing for him to do."
" Do you think so ? " said he.
" Yes. Why ought not he to do that if Lincoln lets him ? "
" How can Lincoln help letting him ? "
" By tipping him out. If I were Lincoln I should say to the
Secretary of the Treasury, ' You know I am a candidate for re-
election, as I suppose it is proper for me to be. Now, every one
of my equals has a right to be a candidate against me, and every
citizen of the United States is my equal who is not my subordi-
pp. 209-214 NOTES TO CHAPTER V 467
nate. Now, if you desire to be a candidate I will give you the
present opportunity to be one by making you nay equal and not
my subordinate, and I will do that in any way which will be the
most pleasant to you, but things cannot go on as they are.' You
see I think it is Lincoln's fault and not Chase's that he is using
the Treasury against Lincoln,"
" Right again," said Cameron. " I will tell Mr. Lincoln every
word you have said." — Butler, 635. See also Rice, 155-160.
At about the same time, David Davis, one of Lincoln's intimates,
wrote to Thurlow Weed, from Washington: —
" There was a meeting of Chase's friends in the city last night.
They resolved not to support Lincoln, etc., etc.; the greater part
present were Treasury office-holders. How long can these things
last?"— Weed ii, 445.
73. Hay's Diary, October 16, 1863, in Nicolay & Hay viii, 316-
317.
74. Carpenter, 129-130. The incident probably happened in Indiana
rather than in Kentucky, but Mr. Carpenter's account of it is
quoted without change.
75. McClure, 122-123.
76. A striking exception was furnished by the Missouri Assembly,
which tabled a resolution in favor of renominating Mr. Lincoln,
by a vote of 45 to 37. Cyclopedia (1864), 783; Nicolay & Hay
ix, 56. The grievances of the Missouri Radicals, or " Charcoals " as
they were called, are stated at length, in Hume, chaps, xx and xxi.
77. Chase to James C. Hall, March 5, 1864.
78. J. M. Winchell, in Galaxy xvi, 38.
79. Congressional Globe, 38th Congress, 1st Session, part ii, 1828-32.
80. Riddle, 275. Even if Mr. Lincoln had previously known of the
speech, he was bound in honor to restore General Blair's commis-
sion. On November 2, 1863, the President had written to Mont-
gomery Blair: —
" Some days ago I understood you to say that your brother, Gren-
eral Frank Blair, desires to be guided by my wishes as to whether
he will occupy his seat in Congress or remain in the field. My wish,
then, is compounded of what I believe will be best for the country
and best for him, and it is that he will come here, put his military
commission in my hands, take his seat, go into caucus with our
friends, abide the nominations, help elect the nominees, and thus aid
to organize a House of Representatives which will really support
the government in the war. If the result shall be the election of
himself as Speaker, let l)im serve in that position, if not, let him
retake his commission and return to the army." — Works ii, 433-
434. For Lincoln's letter directing Blair's reinstatement, see Ibid^
515. For all the documents, see Raymond, 473-475.
468 NOTES TO CHAPTER V pp. 214-221
81. The Blair episode in the history of the relations between Lin-
coln and Chase furnishes a further parallel with what happened
forty years before, in the course of the rivalry between Monroe
and his Secretary of the Treasury. Senator Ninian Edwards of
Illinois, after assailing Crawford in a series of anonymous news-
paper articles, was appointed by President Monroe to the Mexican
mission. While on the way to his post, Edwards sent back a letter
to the Capital avowing himself to be the author of the attacks.
This affair was exceedingly painful to Monroe. It gave a severe
wrench, as in Lincoln's case afterward, to the already greatly
strained relations between the President and his rival subordinate.
82. Gray to Darwin, in Gray ii, 523.
83. McClure, 124.
84. Schuckers, 507; Warden, 611; Works ii, 538-539.
85. Schuckers, 507-508; Warden, 613; Works ii, 539.
86. Warden, 613; Schuckers, 508.
87. Schuckers, 509; Warden, 614; Works ii, 540.
88. Chittenden, 378-379.
89. For a detailed account of this by one of the participants, see
Conness's Reminiscences, in Rice, 561-565.
90. This was not unlike the cry wrung from President Washington
while smarting under the blows of partisan contentions. " I would
rather," he exclaimed, " go to my farm, take my spade in my hand,
and work for my bread than remain where I am."
91. Warden, 619.
92. Chase's Diary, June 30, 1864. — Warden, 618; Schuckers, 509-
510.
93. Chase's Diary, July 4, 1864. —Warden, 623.
94. Sumner to Cobden, September 18, 1864, — Pierce iv, 200. There
was more than a passing resemblance between Chase and Necker.
The French Director of the Finances, like the American Secre-
tary, evinced his genius by filling, under difficult conditions, an
empty treasury, Necker, no less than Chase, enjoyed the confi-
dence of the people, and both financiers set a sufficiently high
valuation on their services. Reaching out, in somewhat the same
manner, after enlarged powers, they made much trouble for their
respective rulers. The ambitions of Necker were stimulated, more-
over, by his brilliant daughter, Madame de Stael ; while Chase's
aspirations were the constant care of the beautiful and accom-
plished Kate Chase Sprague. Both statesmen, deeming themselves
to be indispensable, resigned with the expectation of strengthening
their respective positions. Both, to their keen disappointment,
were taken at their word, and were allowed, amid general pro-
tests, to lay down their portfolios. Necker was later recalled by
the impotent Louis, and Chase — but here the parallel ceases.
pp. 221-227 NOTES TO CHAPTER VI 469
95. In the preceding spring, Mr. Lincoln had promised Charles Sum-
ner to make this appointment, upon the demise of Chief Justice
Taney, then daily expected. Before that death took place, however,
came the rupture which led to Chase's resignation from the cabi-
net. Consequently, when the vacancy on the Supreme Court bench
occurred, some of the President's friends earnestly opposed the
ex-Secretary's selection. Discussing the situation, at the time, with
two admirers of that gentleman, — Judge E. R. Hoar and Richard
H. Dana, — Lincoln said : —
" Mr. Chase is a very able man. He is a very ambitious man,
and I think on the subject of the presidency, a little insane. He
has not always behaved very well lately, and people say to me, —
* Now is the time to crush him out.^ Well, I 'm not in favor of crush-
ing anybody out. If there is anything that a man can do and do it
well, I say, let him do it. Give him a chance." See Rhodes v, 45-46.
NOTES TO CHAPTER VI
1. Early in his career, Mr. Stanton had attended conventions, and
had made some political speeches. He had also held minor offices,
in the line of his profession, such as that of Reporter for the Ohio
Supreme Court, County Prosecuting Attorney, and City Solicitor
in Steubenville.
2. For various versions of this incident see: Tarbell i, 260-266
Herndon ii, 22-25; Browne, 266-269; Arnold, 89-90; Lamon, 332
Nicolay & Hay v, 133-134; Gorham i, 44-45; Flower, 62-65
Stoddard, 316; Hapgood, 121, 254; Piatt, 56; Rhodes ii, 312
Morse i, 326; Chittenden, 185; French, 126-128; Lamon's Recol-
lections, 231-232; Coffin, 162; W. M. Dickson, in Harper's Maga-
zine Ixix, 62-66.
3. This opinion was not perceptibly modified by the fact that Secre-
tary Cameron, from the time he entered the War Department, and
General McClellan, on assuming command of the army, had both
made it a practice to consult Mr. Stanton as to legal matters;
while Generals Scott and Dix had also employed him in a similar
way.
4. Dix ii, 19.
6. Some of these letters were printed in the North American Review
(1879), cxxix, 473-483; and perhaps all that have been published
appeared during 1883, in Curtis ii, 528-559.
6. Poore's Reminiscences, in Rice, 223; The Diary of a Public Man,
North American Review cxxix, 261-262.
7. McClellan, 152.
8. Gorham (i, 79) quotes good authority for this statement, but
470 NOTES TO CHAPTER VI pp. 228-236
Flower (80) asserts that Stanton, while friendly to Breckinridge,
hoped for the election of the other Democratic candidate, Stephen
A. Douglas.
9. Piatt, 57-58.
10. Letter to the Rev. Heman Dyer, one of Stanton's instructors at
Kenyon College. See Gorham i, 430; Flower, 157-161; Congres-
sional Record, June 8, 1886, pp. 5417-5418.
11. Nicolay & Hay v, 137.
12. HoUand, 357; Stoddard, 317; Stowe, 370; Jones, 95-96; H. L.
Dawes, in Atlantic Monthly Lxxiii, 163.
13. " I well remember," said General Vincent, " an order given at
one time which the Secretary deemed based upon misconception.
I was instructed to take the case to the President and invite his
consideration to its prominent points. On reaching the Executive
Mansion I found the President in the reception-room surrounded
by a large number of persons. He immediately recognized me,
stepped forward, and conducted me into the most retired corner
of the room. After I had stated the object of my visit, he said,
* Stanton is careful and may be right. I was very busy when I ex-
amined the case, but I will take the papers, reexamine, and by
four o'clock this afternoon send them by messenger to your office.'
Before the hour indicated the papers were in my hands. The
President had revoked his order and affirmed the decision of the
Secretary." — Address by Assistant Adjutant-General Thomas M.
Vincent, before Burnside Post No. 8, April 25, 1889.
14. Carpenter, 245-246.
15. Gobright, 333.
16. For another of these anecdotes, see Flower, 346-347.
17. J. P. Usher's Reminiscences, in Rice, 100. Stanton's manner of
exercising this veto privilege is nicely illustrated in a little incident
recalled by his confidential clerk, Major A. E. H. Johnson. Colonel
Payton, he relates, was recruiting his regiment in Philadelphia.
Finding that the quota could not be completed in the time allowed,
he asked for an extension of thirty days. A recommendation to
that effect, signed by Governor Curtin and other prominent Penn-
sylvanians, was forwarded to the President, who endorsed on the
document, " Allow Colonel Payton the additional time required,
unless there be reason to the contrary, unknown to me." Under
these words Mr. Stanton wrote, " There is good and valid reason for
not extending the time, and the Secretary of War refuses to do it."
18. Former Vice-President William A. Wheeler, in the Malone
(N. Y.) Palladium, May 7, 1885.
19. Julian, 211-212; Rice, 56-57; Stanton, 232; Co£an,369; Browne,
483-484. See also Boutwell ii, 90.
20. Flower, 369-370.
pp. 236-248 NOTES TO CHAPTER VI 471
21. The riot took place on March 28, 1864.
22. For versions of the affair, see Herndon ii, 227-230; and an inter*
view with Dennis Hanks, in the New York Tribune, February 3,
1889.
23. McClure, 162-166.
24. Lincoln to Banks, December 2, 1864. — Works ii, 602-603.
25. Lincoln to Stanton, March 18, 1864. — Works ii, 499; Nicolay
& Hay V, 144.
26. Nicolay & Hay v, 144.
27. Rice, 379-384.
28. The question was on the reconsideration of the motion to inves-
tigate. — Congressional Globe, 38th Congress, 2d Session, part i,
319.
29. Flower, 348-349.
30. Markland's Reminiscences, in Rice, 328-329.
31. Grant, 639. The anecdote had received currency as early as De-
cember 30, 1869, a few days after Mr. Stanton's death, when it
had been related by the Rev. Dr. Thompson, in the course of the
memorial meeting, at the Union League Club of New York.
32. John A. Campbell, former Associate Justice of the United
States Supreme Court. He had remained in Richmond, when the
other members of the southern government had fled, for the pur-
pose of acting as mediator.
33. Lincoln to Weitzel, April 6, 1865. For the letter in full, see
Works ii, 669; Records, series i, vol. xlvi, part iii, 612.
34. Lincoln to Weitzel, April 12, 1865. — Works ii, 676; Records,
series i, vol. xlvi, part iii, 725.
35. In justice to General Grant's truthfulness as a historian, we
should mention the conditions under which his Memoirs were
written. The concluding chapters — one of them contains the inci-
dent about the Virginia legislature — had to be penned between
the agonies of a mortal disease. His memory was naturally im-
paired, and verification by reference to official documents was
perforce left to others. The wonder is not that there are errors in
the book, but that they are not more numerous.
36. See Mr. Stanton's own statement of the affair, in his testimony
given before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Represent-
tatives, in the investigation of the charges against President John-
son. Reports of Committees, 40th Congress, 1st Session, p. 400;
General Weitzel's testimony before the Committee on the War,
1865, vol. i, 521-522; Records, series i, vol. xlvi, part iii, 612, 655,
€56, 657, 723, 725, 7^5; Campbell, 38-44; Nicolay & Hay x, 220-
228; Flower, 269-272; Gideon Welles, in Galaxy xiii, 524. Ad-
miral Porter's account of the matter (Naval History, 799-800),
though he was on the scene at Richmond, is obviously inaccurate.
472 NOTES TO CHAPTER VI pp. 249-253
37. Lincoln to Huidekoper, September 1, 1864. — Works ii, 570-571.
38. Fry's Reminiscences, in Rice, 396-399; Nicolay & Hay v, 145-
147; House Executive Document No. 80, 38th Congress, 2d Ses-
sion.
39. Lincoln to Grant, September 22, 1864. — Works ii, 579.
On March 17, 1865, Mr. Lincoln wrote a letter that apparently
alluded to this matter. It read : —
Col. R. M. Hough and others, Chicago, 111.
Yours received. The best I can do with it is to refer it to the
War Department. The Rock Island case referred to, was my
individual enterprise, and it caused so much difficulty in so many
ways that I promised to never undertake another. A. Lincoln.
40. Fenton's Reminiscences, in Rice, 71-73.
41. Major William G. Moore, in a letter to the author; Charles F.
Benjamin, in Century Magazine xxxiii, 758-759.
42. According to an anecdote told by Flower (347-348), Stanton finally
obtained a promise from Lincoln that the President would not
interfere in capital cases without consulting the Secretary of War.
A young soldier, so runs the story, whose mother was one of Thad-
deus Stevens's constituents, had been sentenced to be shot for sleep-
ing at his post on the picket line. The mother, in the morning of the
day fixed for the execution, applied to Mr. Stevens for help to save
her son, and the Congressman at once took the case to Mr. Lincoln.
" I am sorry, but 1 can't help you," said Lincoln. " Mr. Stanton
says I am destroying discipline in the army, and I have promised
him I will grant no more reprieves without first consulting him."
" There is no time to consult anybody," rejoined Stevens, looking
at the clock. " There is not an hour to spare."
" It is too bad, but I must keep my promise to sign no more
reprieves," said Lincoln, "without first referring them to Mr.
Stanton."
Picking up a telegraph blank, Stevens wrote a reprieve and, hand-
ing it to Lincoln, inquired whether the form was correct. The Pre-
sident said that it was, whereupon Stevens signed " A. Lincoln " to
the message, and despatched a messenger on the run to the tele-
graph office, whence it was sent to the officer in command of the post
at which the young man was to be shot. Within a few minutes
Stanton hurried into the Executive Chamber, exclaiming : —
" I see, Mr. President, you have signed another reprieve contrary
to your agreement not to do so without first consulting the War
Department."
" No," responded Lincoln, " I have signed no reprieve. I have
kept my word."
"But I just now saw one going over the wires," persisted Stan-
pp. 255-264 NOTES TO CHAPTER VI 473
ton, by whose orders all telegraphic messages were recorded at the
War Department, " and your name is signed to it."
"But I did not write it," replied Lincoln.
" Did not write it ! Who did write it ? "
"Your friend, Thad Stevens."
Stanton took his hat and left without another word ; but the
trick was never repeated.
43. H. L. Dawes, in Atlantic Monthly Ixxiii, 165-166.
44. Coffey's Reminiscences, in Rice, 242-244.
45. Andrew's Reminiscences, in Rice, 516-518. Secretary Stanton
was not generally so intolerant as might be inferred from the fore-
going narrative. Mr. Charles F. Benjamin, who served as a clerk
in the War Department, says : —
" Doubtless Mr. Stanton knew fairly well the extent to which
quiet partisanship for McClellan pervaded his entire department;
but politics under him was as free as religion, so long as fidelity
and industry accompanied it. The chief of his military staff. Colo-
nel Hardie, came to him fresh from cordial and confidential ser-
vice on the staff of the deposed General McClellan." — Century
Magazine, n. s. xi, 763.
46. In North American Review clxiii, 672-675.
47. Lincoln to Stanton, August 12, 1862. — Works ii, 222.
48. Lincoln to Stanton, March 1, 1864. — Works ii, 490-491.
49. Speed, 26-27.
60. To appreciate the full significance of this episode, it must be borne
in mind that Mr. Stanton, with good reason, was especially ner-
vous about paymaster appointments. When Secretary Usher asked
the Secretary of War to make a young friend paymaster, Mr.
Stanton inquired, "How old is he?" "About twenty-one, I be-
lieve," answered the Secretary of the Interioj; he is of good fam-
ily and excellent character." "Usher," was the reply, "I would
not appoint the Angel Gabriel a paymaster, if he was only twenty-
one."
61. William A. Wheeler, in the Malone (N. Y.) Palladium, May 7,
1885. In his article Mr. Wheeler referred to this affair as having
happened during the latter half of 1861. But Mr. Stanton did
not enter upon his duties in the War Department until January
20, 1862. Hence, either he was not the officer encountered by Mr.
Wheeler, or that gentleman was in error as to the time. When
the inconsistency was called to his attention by Ward Hill Lamon,
one of Lincoln's friends and biographers, the venerable author
of the article ascribed his " gross blunder," as he termed it, to the
lapse of time and his enfeebled condition. " The mistake," he wrote,
" must be one of time, for the actors in the transaction are too viv-
idly impressed upon my memory ever to be forgotten until that
474 NOTES TO CHAPTER VI pp. 266-269
faculty is wholly dethroned." It should be added that this expla-
nation is worthy of credit, as Major Sabin, according to the Offi-
cial Army Register, was commissioned on July 29, 1862, when
Secretary Stanton had been in office over six months.
52. Grinnell, 172-173; Byers, 473-474.
53. General Orders No. 138, September 23, 1862. — Records, series
i, vol. xvi, part ii, 539.
54. Thomas to Halleck, September 29, 1862. — Records, series i, vol.
xvi, part ii, 555.
55. Piatt's Thomas, 198.
56. Piatt, 81; Piatt's Thomas, 198-199. Mr. Stanton's disappoint-
ment was again revealed, almost a year later, in a despatch which
he sent to Assistant Secretary of War Dana, at the front with the
Army of the Cumberland. This read, in part: —
" The merit of General Thomas and the debt of gratitude the
nation owes to his valor and skill are fully appreciated here, and
I wish you to tell him so. It was not my fault that he was not in
chief command months ago." — September 30, 1863. — Records,
series i, vol. xxx, part iii, 946.
57. The proposed orders relieved from duty with the Army of the
Potomac: Major-General William Buel Franklin, Major-General
William Farrar Smith, Brigadier-General Samuel D. Sturgis,
Brigadier-General Edward Ferrero, and Assistant Adjutant-Gen-
eral (Lieutenant-Colonel) J. H. Taylor; they dismissed from the
service: Major-General Joseph Hooker, Brigadier-General W. T.
H. Brooks, Brigadier-General John Newton, and Brigadier-Gen-
eral John Cochrane.
58. In command of the Centre Grand Division, Army of the Potomac.
69. The nickname originated in the Associated Press reports of the
battle of Malvern Hill. It displeased General Hooker, who fre-
quently protested against its use. " People will think I am a high-
wayman or a bandit," he said on one occasion. " It always sounds
to me," he said at another time, "as if it meant * Fighting Fool.'
It has really done me much injury in making the public believe
I am a furious, headstrong fool, bent on making furious dashes at
the enemy. I never have fought without good purpose, and with
fair chances of success."
60. These charges were indignantly, but not conclusively answered
by General Hooker, three months later, when General Orders No. 8
had found their way into the newspapers.
61. Extracts from the Journal of Henry J. Raymond, in Scribner's
Magazine (1879), xix, 705.
62. The relations of Secretaries Stanton and Chase to this affair are
set forth, more at length, in Battles and Leaders iii, 239-243, by
Charles F. Benjamin, whose confidential positions at the head"
pp. 270-273 NOTES TO CHAPTER VI 475
quarters of the Army of the Potomac and in the War Department
afforded him exceptional facilities for observation.
63. " General Fry, who was greatly in the confidence of the Presi-
dent, told me that Mr. Lincoln had said to him that he had chosen
Hooker partly out of deference to public opinion and partly out
of personal belief that he was worth trying on his merits. Fry and
Meigs were among the staff officers that the President consulted
on the matter. Both admitted the value of popular opinion, and
neither sought to deny that the true Hooker, the original Hooker,
was a man of power and promise. The President took the chances.
The way in which Hooker went to pieces, in the midst of the great
promise of the Chancellorsville campaign, justified all those who
had been reluctant to advise his elevation." — Letter of Charles
F. Benjamin to the author.
64. The McClellan plan was favored by Generals Keyes, Franklin,
Fitz-John Porter, W. F. Smith, McCall, Blenker, Andrew Porter,
and Naglee of Hooker's division; the President's plan, by Gen-
erals McDowell, Sumner, Heintzelman, and Barnard. This was
the council once referred to by Stanton when he said, " We saw
ten generals afraid to fight."
65. McClellan to Stanton, February 3, 1862. — Records, series i,
vol. V, 45.
66. Kelley, 33-34. The conversation, from which this is an extract,
is obviously not reported literally by the author. His intimate
acquaintance with Secretary Stanton, however, and certain cor-
roborative conditions justify us in accepting it as furnishing at
least the tenor of the interview. See also Flower, 138-139.
67. Julian, 210.
68. Extract from President's General War Order No. 3, March 8,
1862. — Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 57-58; and vol. v, 50.
69. General Sumner voted that a total of 40,000 men would suffice.
Generals McDowell, Keyes, and Heintzelman stated that there
should be 25,000 men " in front of the Virginia line," with the
forts on the right bank of the Potomac fully garrisoned and those
on the left bank occupied. — Records, series i, vol. v, 56; vol. xi,
part iii, 58; Committee on the War, part i, 12. With the forts
so defended, the entire force, according to Generals Thomas and
Hitchcock, should have been 55,000 men. — Records, series i, vol.
xi, part iii, 61 ; Committee on the War, part i, 16. According to
General McClellan, himself, the " necessary garrison" was 35,000
men. — Records, series i, vol. v, 9.
70. Records, series i, vol. v, 56 ; vol. xi, part iii, 59; Committee on
the War, part i, 13.
71. Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 60-61; Committee on the
War, part i, 14-15.
476 NOTES TO CHAPTER VI pp. 273-279
72. Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 61-62; Committee on the
War, part i, 15-17.
73. McClellan, 308.
74. Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 86.
75. See Assistant Secretary Tucker's report, Records, series i, vol. v,
46; and McClellan's report, Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 97.
76. There were about 1100 Confederates under Magruder in and
about Yorktown when McClellan arrived. Most of his errors in
overrating the enemy were due, it should be said, to the gross
miscalculations of his Secret Service officers, which the General
in command, however, might have corrected by the means at his
disposal.
77. Nicolay & Hay v, 366.
78. April 11, 1862. — Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 90.
79. The complete despatch is to be found in Records, series i, vol.
xi, part i, 61; and in McClellan, 425. When Major-General E. A.
Hitchcock, of the War Department, testified before the Joint
Committee on the Conduct of the War, in January, 1863 (see
Committee on the War, part i, 340), he furnished, among other
documents, a copy of the telegram in its mutilated form. Some
months later, McClellan, making his official report, after he had
been relieved of his command, quoted the message in full as he
had sent it. The variation in the despatches led to the charge
that Mr. Stanton had suppressed the two closing sentences. On
the other hand, Gorham, in defence of his hero (Gorham i, 454),
assumes them to have been in McClellan's retained draft, and to
have been omitted from the despatch which he sent. This was
mere assumption, and the onus of having tampered with the mes-
sage lay upon the great War Secretary until recently, when the
facts were brought to light through the industry of Frank Abial
Flower, who tells the story in chapter xxx of his Life of Stanton.
80. Pope, in Battles and Leaders ii, 457.
81. For the complete text of this letter, see Gorham ii, 38-39.
82. Tarbell ii, 130; Gorham ii, 40, where is also to be found an auto-
graph facsimile.
83. Welles, 193.
84. This recalls a similar episode in the history of John Adams's
cabinet, when Secretary Timothy Pickering, with whom Stanton
had some points of resemblance, drafted a remonstrance to the
President against the appointment of Knox to the senior major-
generalship of the army. Pickering's protest was suppressed by
his colleague, Wolcott, as Stanton's was, sixty-four years later, by
the diplomatic Welles. But there the similarity ceased, for Adams
yielded the point, and Lincoln did not.
85. Welles (194) says, *' The President never knew of this paper ";
pp. 279-286 NOTES TO CHAPTER VI 477
but Tarbell (ii, 130) quotes Major Johnson, Stanton's confidential
clerk, as authority for the assertion that Mr. Lincoln had cogni-
zance of both protests. See also Flower, 177.
86. Nicolay & Hay vi, 23.
87. Pope to Halleck, September 2, 1862. — Records, series i, vol.
xii, part iii, 797.
88. Secretary Stanton later had the signature changed. As published
in the Records (series i, vol. xii, part iii, 807), it reads, " By
command of Major-General Halleck." See also Gorham ii, 11 15;
McClellan, 546 ; Battles and Leaders ii, 551.
89. Welles, 191-196.
90. Warden, 459.
91. Blair, in McClellan, 515.
92. The sixth paragraph in the platform read: —
" Resolved, That we deem it essential to the general welfare
that harmony should prevail in the national councils, and we
regard as worthy of public confidence and official trust those only
who cordially endorse the principles proclaimed in these resolu-
tions, and which should characterize the administration of the
government."
93. Halleck to Stanton, July 13, 1861. — Records, series i, vol. xxxvii,
part ii, 261.
91. Lincoln to Stanton, July 14, 1861. — Works ii, 518.
95. Works ii, 518.
96. When Mr. Lincoln, ten weeks later, did accept Mr. Blair's long
proffered resignation, his action was due to influences operating
outside the cabinet.
97. Carpenter, 216. On a letter written by G. Montague Hicks,
found among Mr. Lincoln's papers, was the following endorse-
ment: —
" This note, as Colonel Hicks did verbally yesterday, attempts
to excite me against the Secretary of War, and therein is offen-
sive to me. My * order,' as he is pleased to call it, is plainly no
order at all. — A. Lincoln, May 22, 1862." — Works ii, 157.
98. Rhodes v, 181-182.
99. Gorham ii, 170; Chittenden, 192. According to Flower (105),
the President said: —
' If Mr. Stanton can find a man he himself will trust as Secre-
tary of War, I '11 do it."
100. Charles F. Benjamin, in Century Magazine xxxiii, 760.
101. Stanton to Chase, November 19, 1861. — Schuckers, 512-513.
102. Carpenter, 265-266. See also Lamon's Recollections, 231-235;
Stowe, 375-376; Irelan xvii, 588^89; McClure, 172; Henry Wil-
son, in Atlantic Monthly xxv, 213.
103. Stanton to Ashley, September 11, 1866. — Flower, 310-312.
478 NOTES TO CHAPTER VII pp. 287-300
104. " General Eckert, who then had charge of the telegraph depart-
ment of the War Office, was coming in continually with telegrams
containing election returns. Mr. Stanton would read them and the
President would look at them and comment upon them. Presently
there came a lull in the returns, and Mr. Lincoln called me up to
a place by his side. * Dana,' said he, ' have you ever read any of
the writings of Petroleum V. Nasby ? ' ' No, sir,' I said, ' I have
only looked at some of them, and they seemed to me quite funny.'
• Well,' said he, 'let me read you a specimen '; and, pulling out a
thin yellow-covered pamphlet from his breast pocket, he began
to read aloud. Mr. Stanton viewed this proceeding with great
impatience, as I could see, but Mr. Lincoln paid no attention to
that. He would read a page or a story, pause to con a new election
telegram, and then open the book again and go ahead with a new
passage. Finally Mr. Chase came in and presently Mr. Whitelaw
Reid, and then the reading was interrupted. Mr. Stanton went to
the door and beckoned me into the next room. I shall never forget
the fire of his indignation at what seemed to him to be mere non-
sense." — Dana, in Rice, 372.
105. Stanton to Lincoln, April 3, 1865. — Records, series i, vol. xlvi,
part iii, 509.
106. Lincoln to Stanton, April 3, 1865. — Records, series i, vol. xlvi,
part iii, 509.
107. Chittenden, 186.
NOTES TO CHAPTER VII
1. At Savannah, Ga., on the 21st of January, 1813.
2. He was also nominated by anti-slavery seceders from the National
Convention of the American Party.
3. Records, series i, vol. iii, 390.
4. " Several commands in the East were suggested to me, but I pre-
ferred the West, which I knew; and I held the opinion that the
possession of the immediate valley of the Mississippi River would
control the result of the war. Who held the Mississippi would
hold the country by the heart." — Fremont, in Battles and Lead-
ers i, 278.
5. Fremont i, 602.
6. Whitney, 361; Nicolay & Hay iv, 422; Works ii, 81.
7. Records, series i, vol. iii, 467; Moore iii, documents, p. 33 ;
McPherson, 246; Barrett, 278; Cyclopedia (1861), 491.
8. Lincoln to Browning, September 22, 1861. — Whitney, 360;
Works ii, 81; Nicolay & Hay iv, 421-423.
9. This act provided, as its title indicates, for the seizure of such
pp. 300-305 NOTES TO CHAPTER VII 479
property and slaves, only, as were employed in hostile service
against the government. See Moore ii, documents, pp. 475-476.
10. Records, series i, vol. iii, 469-470; McPherson, 246; Nicolay &
Hay iv, 418; Works ii, 77.
11. McPherson, 245-246; Records, series i, vol. iii, 693.
12. Records, series i, vol. iii, 477; McPherson, 247; Committee on
the War, part iii, 152.
13. Colonel T. T. Taylor, in command at Springfield, Mo. For
Fremont's letter to him, see McPherson, 247.
14. " In the night I decided upon the proclamation and the form of
it. — I wrote it the next morning and printed it the same day.
1 did it without consultation or advice with any one." — Fremont
to Lincoln, September 8, 1861. Notice, however, the apparent in-
consistency between the foregoing and this other statement, made
in the same letter: " I acted with full deliberation, and upon the
certain conviction that it was a measure right and necessary, and
I think so still."
15. From the diary of John Hay, in Nicolay & Hay iv, 415.
16. Congressman Grinnell of Iowa, who called on the President at
this time with sundry complaints, records that as he opened the
budget of his grievances, Mr. Lincoln said: —
" Don't mention them. I meet insults, standing between two
fires, and the constant blazes of anger. Why, not an hour ago, a
woman, a lady of high blood, came here, opening her case with
mild expostulation, but left in anger, flaunting her handkerchief
before my face, and saying, * Sir, the general will try titles with
you. He is a man and I am his wife.' I will tell you before you
guess. It was Jessie, the daughter of ' Old Bullion,' and how her
eye flashed ! Young man, forget your annoyances. They are only
as flea-bites to mine." — Grinnell, 174.
The President must have received his visitors late that Septem-
ber night, or the Congressman was in error concerning the time of
this interview.
17. Fremont to Lincoln, September 8, 1861. — McPherson, 246-247 ;
Committee on the War, part iii, 151-152 ; Records, series i, vol.
iii, 477^78.
18. Lincoln to Fremont, September 11, 1861. — McPherson, 247; Ire-
Ian xvii, 97; Barrett, 280; Works ii, 78-79; Moore iii, documents,
p. 126; Records, series i, vol. iii, 485^86, and series ii, vol. i, 768.
19. Phillips, 457.
20. Hoadly to Chase, September 19, 1861. — Rhodes iii, 474. See
also a letter of the previous day from Hoadly to Chase, in Chase
Papers, 503-505.
21. Fremont reached St. Louis July 25. The battle of Wilson's
Creek was fought ou August 10, 1861.
48o NOTES TO CHAPTER VII pp. 305-311
22. Schofield, 39^1. Lyon's acknowledgment of the missing de-
spatch is to be found in Records, series i, vol. iii, 57; and in Com-
mittee on the War, part iii, 36, 106.
23. September 20, 1861.
24. Between the Blairs and the Bentons existed a devoted friend-
ship, in which Frdmont had naturally been included. One of his
sons was named, on August 1, 1855, Francis Preston Fremont.
25. Nicolay & Hay iv, 415.
26. This letter was published in the Cincinnati Enquirer, and was
quoted in the New York Tribune of October 7, 1861.
27. Lincoln to Hunter, September 9, 1861. — Works ii, 78; Nicolay
& Hay iv, 413.
28. The correspondence between Lincoln and Mrs. Fremont was re-
published, from the Cincinnati Enquirer, in the New York Tribune
of October 7, 1861. For Lincoln's letter, see also Works ii, 79;
Nicolay & Hay iv, 414.
29. Fremont to Assistant Adjutant-General Townsend, September
15, 1861. — Committee on the War, part iii, 136. The charges and
specifications were published in the New York Tribune of October
7, 1861.
30. Blair's charges and specifications, dated September 26, 1861, were
published at the time in the Cincinnati Enquirer, and were reprinted
in the New York Tribune of October 9, 1861. See also Nicolay &
Hay iv, 430.
31. Cameron to Lincoln, October 14, 1861. — Nicolay & Hay iv, 430.
32. Records, series i, vol. iii, 540-549; Committee on the War,
part iii, 7-16. Before leaving St. Louis, the Secretary of War had
given Frdmont orders whereby he hoped to remedy some of the
abuses in the department. (Records, series i, vol. iii, 532-533.)
These orders were not wholly obeyed.
33. Congressman Elihu B. Washburne of Illinois, who with William
S. Holman, Henry L. Dawes, and W. G. Steele had spent two
weeks in St. Louis taking testimony for the House Committee on
Government Contracts, wrote to Secretary Chase, before the news
of Fremont's removal had reached Missouri: —
" I was on the point of writing you from St. Louis several times,
but the situation of things there was so terrible and the frauds so
shocking, I did not know where to begin or where to end; and
then again it appeared that everything communicated by our best
men there in regard to Frdmont and the condition of matters in
the City and State was utterly disregarded. Our committee
labored for two weeks, and our disclosures will astound the world
and disgrace us as a nation. Such robbery, fraud, extravagance,
peculation, as have been developed in Frdmont's department can
hardly be conceived of. There has been an organized system of
pp. 3 1 1-3 1 7 NOTES TO CHAPTER VII 481
pillage, right under the eye of Frdmont. Governor Chase, what
does the administration mean by permitting this state of things to
exist in the Western Department ? It cannot be ignorant of what
the situation of matters is. I fear things have run on so far there
is no remedy, and that all has gone. Fremont has really set up an
authority over the government, and bids defiance to its commands.
McKinstry, who directs and controls him, is not only a robber but
a traitor. The government, in failing to strike at Fremont and
his horde of pirates, acknowledges itself a failure. The credit of
the government is ruined." — October 31, 1861. — Chase Papers,
506-508.
For a contrary view of the situation, defending Fremont, see a
letter written about a fortnight later by Grimes to Fessenden, in
Salter, 155-156 ; also B. Rush Plumley to Chase, October 9, 1861,
in Chase Papers, 505-506. See also a brief defence of Fremont in
Hume, 184-185.
34. A statement of this transaction had previously been laid before
the administration in Colonel Blair's charges.
35. Records, series i, vol. iii, 553.
36. Lincoln to Curtis, October 24, 1861. — Works ii, 86; Nicolay &
Hay iv, 433; Records, series i, vol. iii, 553.
37. Fremont's farewell address to his army, on November 2, 1861,
is a model performance. It is published in Moore iii, documents,
p. 270; Cyclopedia (1861), 493.
38. Warrington, 271.
39. Grimes to his wife, November 13, 1861. — Salter, 154.
40. Smith to Chase, November 7, 1861. — Chase Papers, 508-509.
41. Carpenter, 221-222.
42. President's War Order No. 3, March 11, 1862. — Records, series
i, vol. X, part ii, 28-29.
43. Before Frdmont entered upon his new duties, he received from
the War Department this significant caution: —
" In consequence of embarrassments having been thrown upon
the officers of the government in the settlement of accounts grow-
ing out of contracts irregularly made in some parts of the country
for army supplies, transportation, &c., it becomes necessary to call
the attention of commanders to this subject, and to direct that
no contract whatever will be made by your authority except in
conformity with the Regulations for the Army and through the
proper officers of the several departments of the Army. The
necessities of the country and the credit of the service demand
strict regularity and rigid econony." — Thomas to Fremont, March
22, 1862. — Records, series i, vol. xii, part iii, 8.
44. Fremont's Report in Records, series i, vol. xii, part i, 11-12.
45. Warrington, 270.
482 NOTES TO CHAPTER VII pp. 318-321
46. Frdmont's Report.
47. June 26, 1862. — Records, series i, vol. xii, part iii, 435; Works
ii, 188.
48. Fremont to Stanton, June 27, 1862. — Records, series i, vol. xii,
part iii, 437-438.
49. Great soldiers have, in all ages, echoed Young Clifford's maxim, —
" He that is truly dedicate to war,
Hath no self-love."
And the two most eminent English-speaking generals of the
nineteenth century have left on record their contempt for this spe-
cies of military egotism. When an officer in Wellington's army
complained that he had been appointed to a command beneath
his merits, the Iron Duke said: —
" In the course of my military career, I have gone from the
command of a brigade to that of my regiment, and from the com-
mand of an army to that of a brigade or a division, as I was
ordered, and without any feeling of mortification."
Our own Grant, commenting on an act of insubordination sim-
ilar to that of Frdmont, remarked: —
" The worst excuse a soldier can make for declining service is
that he once ranked the commander he is ordered to report to."
50. " It may not be out of place here to mention that the authority to
appoint a general of lower rank to command over officers outrank-
ing him — an authority interfering materially with the universally
established military rules, calculated, when exercised, in nine cases
out of ten, to cause mischief and ill-will, to destroy harmony and
cordial cooperation, and thereby to undermine elements essential
for the success of any army — that this authority was given to
the President by an Act of Congress, originating with, and carried
principally by the votes of the friends of General Frdmont, with
the intention, it was said, to see General McClellan — who would
not allow anybody to interfere with his official business — super-
seded by General Frdmont, whom he outranked. As if Nemesis
had willed it, the first [?] instance in which the President thought
himself justified to exercise this dangerous authority, he had to
exercise it against General Frdmont." — Petersen, 29.
51. Stanton to Fremont, June 27, 1862. — Records, series i, vol.
xii, part iii, 438.
52. Hay's Diary, in Nicolay & Hay iv, 415.
53. Four weeks before, Mr. Julian had severely arraigned the ad-
ministration from his place in Congress. " The Government," he
said, "cannot escape history, but it can atone, in some degree,
for the great wrong it has done the country and General Fremont,
by restoring him, without further delay, to active service, with a
command befitting his rank and merits. Every consideration of
pp. 321-326 NOTES TO CHAPTER VII 483
justice and patriotism pleads for this. He has been the victim of
the most cruel injustice, and the most unmerited and mortifying
humiliation." — February 18, 1863. — Congressional Globe, 37th
Congress, 3d Session, part ii, 1068.
54. Julian, 229-230; Rice, 55.
55. James Taussig to Emil Preetorius and others. — Brockett, 505-
507.
56. Lincoln to Sumner, June 1, 1863. — Nicolay & Hay vi, 456-457;
Works ii, 342-343.
57. Moncure D. Conway's London letter of July 20, 1864, in the
Boston Commonwealth of August 12, 1864. See also Conway i,
376-381; Winthrop, 240.
58. It called itself the National Union Convention.
59. Frdmont to Snethen and others, June 4, 1864. — McPherson,
413-^14; Cyclopedia (1864), 787. On the same day General Fre-
mont resigned from the army.
60. The fullest report of this incident is to be found in Carpenter,
220-221. According to this writer, the conversation took place
after Fremont had withdrawn from the canvass, and was sug-
gested by Colonel Deming's examination of the handsome bible
that had been presented to the President a few weeks before, by
the negroes of Baltimore. According to Nicolay & Hay (ix. 40-
41), the Cave of Adullam reference was made by Mr. Lincoln
the morning after Fremont's nomination. It may be added that
this witticism was applied with brilliant efPect, two years later,
in the British Parliament, by John Bright, to the Liberals who
seceded from their party during the struggle over the Reform
Bill.
61. General Cochrane withdrew at the same time.
62. Fremont to Stearns, September 21, 1864. See also Frdmont to
Snethen, September 17, 1864. — McPherson, 426-427. One crumb
of comfort Frdmont carried with him into his retirement. A few
days thereafter, his enemy, Montgomery Blair, left the cabinet.
All attacks upon the Postmaster-General had failed to set the
President against him, but he had made so many enemies among
the Radicals and others that his withdrawal had been inferentially
suggested by the National Convention, as well as urged by Fre-
mont's followers. To unite the party, this unpopular minister was
willing to retire, so Lincoln finally asked for his resignation. The
request was made with so much kindness, however, that the Presi-
dent held the loyal support of the Blair family, to the end. See
Chandler, 273-277. It should be added that directly after the
second inauguration, Mr. Lincoln offered Montgomery Blair hia
choice between the Austrian and the Spanish missions, but that
the offer was courteously yet firmly declined.
484 NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII pp. 327-334
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII
1. This department had been constructed out of Ohio, Indiana, and
Illinois, on May 3, 1861, with McClellan in command. Its con-
fines were extended, on May 9, 1861, so as to include portions of
western Virginia and western Pennsylvania. On June 6, 1861, the
State of Missouri was added.
2. For some of these documents, see Cyclopedia (1861), 744-748; and
Hillard, 88-103.
3. McClellan was in his thirty-fifth year.
4. General Orders No. 47, July 25, 1861. The division comprised
the Department of Washington and the Department of North-
eastern Virginia. — Records, series i, vol. ii, p. 763. See also Gen-
eral Orders No. 1, July 27, 1861. — Ihid., 766.
5. He was born in Philadelphia, December 3, 1826, and was gradu-
ated from West Point during 1846, with general standing number
two in a class of fifty-nine.
6. The work on cavalry service was adapted from the Russian to the
needs of the United States Army. It appeared as an appendix
to The Armies of Europe, and was published later in amplified
form as a handbook of instruction. The manual of bayonet exer-
cise was adapted from the French of Gomard.
7. He had in 1855 been appointed Captain in the First Regiment of
Cavalry, United States Army.
8. April 23, 1861.
9. " On the 14th of May, while the Governor was in Cincinnati, on
a hasty trip to look after the requirements of the southern bor-
der, a dispatch was handed him from Mr. Chase: 'We have to-
day had McClellan appointed a Major-General in the regular
army.' He was in a room with McClellan, Marcy, and others, and
he immediately handed over the dispatch to the one whom it
most concerned. Governor Dennison has since described the utter
amazement that overspread the face of the young officer, and the
difficulty with which he could be persuaded that so overpowering
an honor had really been conferred upon him. His father-in-law
and chief-of-sta£f, Major Marcy, was equally incredulous; and the
next day the Governor had even to produce the dispatch again,
before Mrs. McClellan could satisfy herself that her husband had
been so suddenly raised so high. They all seemed to imagine that
it must be some inexplicable mistake, and that the Washington
authorities could really intend nothing of the kind." — Reid i,
33-34.
10. McClellan, 162.
11. Ihid., 82.
pp. 334-348 NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII 485
12. McClellan, 83.
13. Ibid., 91. Several months later, McClellan, describing an even-
ing meeting with the President, wrote: —
" As I parted from him on Seward's steps, he said that it had
been suggested to him that it was no more safe for me than for
him to walk out at night without some attendant. I told him that
I felt no fear ; that no one would take the trouble to interfere
with me. On which he deigned to remark that they would prob-
ably give more for my scalp at Richmond than for his." — Mc-
Clellan, 176.
14. Ibid., 176.
15. For this and the four following extracts, see McClellan, 84-87.
16. For this and the six following extracts, see McClellan, 167, 168,
169, 175, 176.
17. Gurowski i, 123.
18. Stoddard's White House, 115.
19. Nicolay & Hay iv, 468. See also Kelley, 7; Brooks, 327; Rus-
sell, 552; Comte de Paris i, 574; Warden, 399; Whitney, 307-
308; King, 241-242; Draper ii, 373.
20. Nicolay & Hay iv, 469.
21. Scott to the Secretary of War, August 9 and August 12, 1861.
— Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 4-6. See also Scott to Cam-
eron, October 31, 1861. — Records, series iii, vol. i, 611-612.
22. General Orders No. 94. — Records, series i, vol. v, 639.
23. McClellan's Memorandum of August 2, 1861. — McClellan, 101.
24. McClellan to Lincoln, December 10, 1861. — Swinton, 70-71;
Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 6-7.
25. McClellan's own answers to Lincoln's questions show that there
were 104,000 troops ready to move. See, for the Federal figures,
Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 6; and McClellan, 79. For the
Confederate figures, see Records, series i, vol. v, 974, and John-
ston, 83.
26. McClellan to Cameron, in the latter part of October, 1861. —
Records, series i, vol. v, 9.
27. Ibid., 9-10.
28. McClellan, 162.
29. Swinton, 97.
30. Records, series i, vol. v, 6.
31. " We are endeavoring to see if there is any way in God's world
to get rid of the Capital besieged, while Europe is looking down
upon us as almost a conquered people." — Senator Wade, Decem-
ber 26, 1861. — Committee on the War, part i, 140.
32. Resolution adopted in the House, July 22, 1861, and in the
Senate, July 26, 1861. — Cyclopedia (1861), 241, 244.
33. Reuben E. Fenton, in Rice, 74-75.
486 NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII pp. 348-356
34. Comte de Paris, in Battles and Leaders ii, 120.
35. This Committee organized, December 20, 1861, with the follow-
ing members: Senators Wade, Chandler, and Johnson; Represen-
tatives Gooch, Covode, Julian, and Odell.
36. McDowell's narrative in Raymond, 772-778.
37. Secretary Cameron did not attend, as he was about to resign.
38. General Franklin, who was somewhat in McClellan's confidence,
had at first suggested a campaign against Richmond, by way of
the York River. Upon careful investigation, however, he agreed
that action, within a few weeks, was feasible only by the overland
route. But Judge Blair, warmly opposing the plan of direct
attack in any event, insisted throughout that decisive results were
to be secured solely by the Lower Chesapeake, with a base on the
York River, or at Fortress Monroe.
39. McClellan, 155.
40. January 12, 1862.
41. Chase may be said at this time to have represented the anti-
slavery element, in the cabinet. On January 5, 1862, he wrote to
T. C.Day: —
" I agree with you, that the administration has put too many
enemies in places of great power and influence, and has acted most
unwisely in so doing. No part of this responsibility, however, is
mine, unless the appointment of McClellan be an exception. I
really thought he was the very man for the time. I was mistaken,
and make no more rash dependencies." — Warden, 397.
42. For complete accounts of this affair from both points of view,
see McDowell's narrative, in Raymond, 772-778; and McClellan,
156-159.
43. Dated January 14, 1862.
44. Cameron himself could not make the protest, as he had resigned
from the cabinet a few days before.
45. Hutchinsons i, 391.
46. Records, series i, vol. v, 41; Works ii, 119. In a confidential
letter to a friend, Secretary Stanton, several months later, made
this comment : —
" It is not necessary, or perhaps proper, to state all the causes
that led to that order, but it is enough to know that the govern-
ment was on the verge of bankruptcy, and at the rate of expendi-
ture, the armies must move, or the government perish." — Stanton
to Dyer, May 18, 1862. — Gorham i, 427; Flower, 157.
47. Records, series i, vol. v, 41; Works ii, 119.
48. Accompanying the note were a few tactical suggestions that
evinced how closely the President was studying the situation. See
Records, series i, vol. v, 41-42, and 713; Works ii, 120-121.
49. Records, series i, vol. v, 42-45.
pp. 356-359 NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII 487
50. Archibald Forbes said of this letter: —
" McClellan's reply was voluminous, plausible, and full of in-
genious special pleading. Could McClellan have fought as well
as he wrote, he would have taken rank among the great command-
ers." — North American Review,c\\, 66.
51. Records, series i, vol. v, 45.
52. McClellan, 194. .
53. Kelley, 22.
54. See Comte de Paris i, 610-611; Schuckers, 446.
55. It was characteristic of McClellan to telegraph Stanton, not that
the boats which he, himself, had caused to be collected were too
wide, but that the lift-lock was too narrow. See McClellan to
Stanton, February 27, 1862. — Records, series i, vol. v, 728.
56. Lincoln's private secretary has left the following account of how
the news was received : —
*' * What does this mean ? ' asked the President, in amazement.
" * It means,' said the Secretary of War, ' that it is a damned
fizzle. It means that he does n't intend to do anything.'
"The President's indignation was intense; and when, a little
later. General Marcy, McClellan's father-in-law and chief-of-staff,
came in, Lincoln's criticism of the affair was in sharper language
than was his usual habit.
*' ' Why, in the name of common sense,' said he, excitedly,
* could n't the General have known whether canal-boats would go
through that lock before he spent a million dollars getting them
there ? I am almost despairing at these results. Everything seems
to fail. The impression is daily gaining ground that the General
does not intend to do anything. By a failure like this we lose all
the prestige gained by the capture of Fort Donelson.' " — Nicolay,
294.
57. McClellan, 195-196.
58. According to McClellan, the President was especially displeased
because he had received no explanation of this affair. " While at
Harper's Ferry," writes the General, " I learned that the Presi-
dent was dissatisfied with my action, and on reaching Washington
I laid a full explanation before the Secretary [of War], with which
he expressed himself entirely satisfied, and told me that the Pre-
sident was already so, and that it was unnecessary for me to com-
municate with him on the subject. . . . The President sent for
me [on the 8th of March]. I then learned that he had received
no explanation of the Harper's Ferry affair, and that the Secretary
was not authorized to make the statement already referred to;
but after my repetition of it, the President became fully satisfied
with my course." — McClellan, in Battles and Leaders ii, 165-166.
See also McClellan, 195.
488 NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII pp. 360-369
59. McClellan, 222; Battles and Leaders ii, 166; Records, series i,
vol. V, 13, 50.
60. Records, series i, vol. v, 589.
61. The order also provided for a fifth corps, to be commanded by
Major-General N. P. Banks, and placed the forces that were to be
left for the defence of Washington under Brigadier-General James
S. Wadsworth, as Military Governor of the District of Columbia.
62. It was approved of by Generals Naglee, W. F. Smith, Blenker,
McCall, Franklin, Fitz-John Porter, Andrew Porter, and Keyes;
opposed were Generals Barnard, Heintzelman, McDowell, and
Sumner, Keyes voted in the affirmative, with the proviso " that
no change should be made until the rebels were driven from their
batteries on the Potomac."
63. Works ii, 131; Records, series i, vol. v, 50.
64. Records, series i, vol. v, 739-741; McClellan, 223-224.
65. The incident of the army corps did not close here. After Mc-
Clellan reached the Peninsula, he still balked. A correspondence
between him and the government resulted in the formation of two
additional corps under his favorites, Fitz-John Porter and William
B. Franklin, respectively. See Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii,
153-154, 155, 327-328, 333.
66. March 11, 1862.— McCleUan, 179.
67. One of these civilian critics. Secretary Chase, had, as long before
this as February 17, somehow arrived at a perfect comprehen-
sion of the situation. " The time has now come," he wrote to
Bishop Mcllvaine, " for dealing decisively with the army in front
of us, weakened by sickness, desertions, and withdrawals of troops,
until a victory over it is deprived of more than half its honor." —
Warden, 416. See Johnston, 91-106.
68. Records, series i, vol. v, 52-53, 742, 763-764.
69. The Comte de Paris, who was on McClellan's staff at the time,
more than hinted at this opinion, in his history (i, 613); but he
modified it, some years thereafter, in his contribution to Battles
and Leaders ii, 121. See also De Joinville, 27; Hillard, 157;
McClellan's testimony before the Committee on the War, part i,
426.
70. Johnston, 102.
71. Records, series i, vol. v, 1086.
72. lUd., 1212,.
73. Johnston, 78. That this was no very recent device either, may
be inferred from a letter of Beauregard to Johnston, dated Centre-
ville, December 9, 1861. It reads, in part: " To prevent spies and
others from communicating to ' George ' our arrangements, I think
it would be advisable to keep in reserve, at some safe place, our
' wooden guns,' to be put in position only when required. I have
FP. 370-372 NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII 489
so instructed Longstreet for the armament of his batteries." —
Records, series i, vol. v, 990.
74. Julian's Reminiscences, in Rice, 53.
75. It had been laid, during the evening (of March 11), before
Secretaries Stanton, Seward, and Chase, whom the President sum-
moned for the purpose. They heartily approved. — See Nicolay
& Hay V, 178-179.
76. Works ii, 137; Flower, 140-141.
77. It appears from this letter that Lincoln, considerate as ever,
must have softened the blow with kindly words for McClellan,
spoken to his friend. Governor Dennison. The concluding para-
graph reads : —
" I believe I said to you some weeks since, in connection with
some Western matters, that no feeling of self-interest or ambition
should ever prevent me from devoting myself to your service. I
am glad to have the opportunity to prove it, and you will find that,
under present circumstances, I shall work just as cheerfully as
before, and that no consideration of self will in any manner inter-
fere with the discharge of my public duties. Again thanking you
for the official and personal kindness you have so often evinced
towards me, I am, most sincerely your friend,
Geo. B. McClellan."
McClellan, 225-226.
78. A note appended to the memorandum read : " N. B. — That
with the forts on the right bank of the Potomac fully garrisoned
and those on the left bank occupied, a covering force in front of the
Virginia line of 25,000 men would suffice. (Keyes, Heintzelman,
and McDowell.) A total of 40,000 men for the defense of the city
would suffice. (Sumner.) " — Committee on the War, part i, 312;
Records, series i, vol. v, 55-56; series i, vol. xi, part iii, 58.
79. Committee on the War, part i, 311-312.
80. Records, series i, vol. v, 56; Committee on the War, part i, 313.
81. Reid i, 289.
82. " I will not consent to one other man being detached from this
army for that [General Thomas W. Sherman's] expedition. I need
far more than I now have to save this country, and cannot spare
any disciplined regiment. Instead of diminishing this army, true
policy would dictate its immediate increase to a large extent. It
is the task of the Army of the Potomac to decide the question at
issue. No outside expedition can effect the result. I hope that I
will not again be asked to detach anybody." — McClellan to Assist-
ant Secretary of War Scott, October 17, 1861. — Records, series
i, vol. vi, 179.
83. Works ii, 140-141; McClellan, 164-165; Records, series i,
vol. v, 58, The reasons for the order are set forth in Lincoln's
490 NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII pp. 373-383
rather sharp letter of June 16, 1862, to Fremont. — Works ii,
182-183.
84. When he came to write his Own Story, McClellan conceded
(McClellan, 97) that " in view of its exposed position and immense
political importance, it was impossible to allow Washington to be
endangered."
85. " It is said that the rebels would willingly exchange Richmond
for Washington." — General Wool to Secretary Stanton, July 21,
1862. — Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 331.
86. Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 38, 39, 65.
87. McClellan to his wife, April 6 and 8, 1862. — McClellan, 307, 308.
88. Lincoln to McClellan, April 9, 1862. — Works ii, 142.
89. Magruder to Adjutant and Inspector-General Cooper, May 3,
1862. — Records, series i, vol. xi, part i, 406 ; Flower, 148-149.
90. General Joseph E. Johnston to General Robert E. Lee, April
22, 1862. — Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 456.
91. Lincoln to McClellan, April 6, 1862. — Works ii, 142.
92. McClellan to his wife, April 8, 1862. — McClellan, 308. Else-
where in the book he relates an anecdote which probably inspired
this impudent idea. " When in front of Sebastopol in 1855," writes
McClellan, " I asked General Martimprey, chief-of-sta£f of the
French army in the Crimea, how he found that the cable worked
which connected the Crimean with the European lines of tele-
graph. He said that it worked admirably from the Crimea to Paris,
but very badly in the opposite direction ; and by way of explana-
tion related the following anecdote. He said that immediately
after the failure of the assault of June, 1855, the Emperor tele-
graphed Pdlissier to renew the assault immediately. Pdlissier
replied that it was impossible without certain preliminary prepara-
tions which required several weeks. The Emperor repeated the
peremptory order to attack at once. P^lissier repeated his reply.
After one or two more interchanges of similar messages Pdlissier
telegraphed : ' I will not renew the attack until ready. If you
wish it done, come and do it yourself.' That ended the matter."
93. Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 484 ; Allan, 11-12, note.
94. Lincoln to McClellan, April 9, 1862. — Works ii, 143.
95. McClellan, 150.
96. These quotations are from McClellan, 306, 310, 316-317, 356,
359, 407, 449, 453.
97. McClellan to Lincoln, May 14, 1862. — McClellan, 344; Records,
series i, vol. xi, part i, 27.
98. McClellan to Stanton, May 28, 1862. — McClellan, 372 ; Re-
cords, series i, vol xi, part i, 35.
99. McClellan to Stanton. — McClellan, 373 ; Records, series i, vol.
xi, part i, 36.
pp. 384-393 NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII 491
100. McClellan to Stanton, June 14, 1862. — McClellan, 389 ; Re-
cords, series i, vol. xi, part i, 48. McCall's division, belonging to
McDowell's corps, had just arrived in advance of the main body.
The request to which McClellan took exception was obviously in
accordance with the President's orders. For previous correspond-
ence on this subject, see Records, series i, vol. xi, part i, 27, 28,
29, 30; Ihid., part iii, 184; McClellan, 349, 351; Works ii, 153-
154, 156, 158.
101. McClellan to Stanton, June 25, 1862. — Records, series i, vol.
xi, part i, 51; McClellan, 392.
102. Lincoln to McClellan, June 26, 1862. — Works ii, 186-187.
103. McClellan to Stanton, June 28, 1862. — McClellan, 425; Re-
cords, series i, vol. xi, part i, 61.
104. It may be profitable to contrast McClellan's accusation of June
28, 1862, with this paragraph from his report of August 4, 1863:
" I cannot omit the expression of my thanks to the President for
the constant evidence given me of his sincere personal regard, and
his desire to sustain the military plans which my judgment led me
to urge for adoption and execution. I cannot attribute his failure
to adopt some of those plans, and to give that support to others
which was necessary to their success, to any want of confidence in
me, and it only remains for me to regret that other counsels came
between the constitutional Commander-in-Chief and the General
whom he had placed at the head of his armies, counsels which
resulted in the failure of great campaigns."
105. Lincoln to McClellan, June 28, 1862. — Works ii, 190; Re-
cords, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 269.
106. Herndon ii, 254-255.
107. See also Flower, 147.
108. Works ii, 219-220.
109. McClellan to Stanton, June 7, 1862. — Records, series i, vol.
xi, part i, 46; McClellan, 387.
110. McClellan's oft-repeated assertion that in trying to effect a
junction with McDowell he was compelled fatally to disarrange
his plans, is not borne out by the record. In fact, this claim was
clearly an afterthought. He had, in the first place, adopted his
route without regard to McDowell; and later, when it was found
that the junction would not take place, there were ample oppor-
tunities for a change of plan, had McClellan desired to make
one.
111. Carpenter, 219.
112. Lincoln to McClellan, July 3, 1862. — Works ii, 198; Records,
series i, vol. xi, part iii, 291.
113. McClellan to Lincoln, July 4, 1862. — McClellan, 484-485;
Records, series i, vol. xi, part i, 71-72.
492 NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII pp. 393-400
114. Lincoln to McClellan, July 5, 1862. — Works ii, 200; Records,
series i, vol. xi, part i, 72.
115. McClellan to Thomas, July 1, 1862. — Records, series i, vol.
xi, part iii, 281.
116. Lincoln to McClellan, July 2, 1862. — Works ii, 196-197; Re-
cords, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 286.
117. McClellan to Stanton, July 3, 1862. — Records, series i, vol.
xi, part iii, 291-292. General R. B. Marcy, McClellan's chief-
of-staff, who carried the letter, telegraphed back to his com-
mander : —
" I have seen the President and Secretary of War. Ten thou-
sand men from Hunter, 10,000 from Burnside, and 11,000 from
here have been ordered to reenforce you as soon as possible.
Halleck has been urged by the President to send you at once
10,000 men from Corinth. The President and Secretary speak
very kindly of you and find no fault." — Ibid., 294.
118. See Memorandum of Questions and Answers in Interviews
between the President and General McClellan and other Officers
during a Visit to the Army of the Potomac at Harrison's Land-
ing, Virginia. — Works ii, 201.
119. Whitney, 183 ; also Mary A. Livermore, in Bates, 22.
120. Lincoln to McClellan, July 13, 1862. — Works ii, 206; Re-
cords, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 319.
121. The President's questions bore fruit in McClellan's despatch
of July 27, 1862, to Adjutant-General Thomas. " I respectfully
apply," it began, " for permission to send an officer from each
regiment to the place where it was raised, with authority to bring
on every officer and man he can find fit for duty, whether on leave
of absence or not, no matter from what source the leave may be
granted." — Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 338.
122. McClellan to Lincoln, July 15, 1862. — Records, series i, vol.
xi, part iii, 321-322.
123. McClellan to Lincoln, July 17, 1862. — McClellan, 490 ; Re-
cords, series i, vol. xi, part i, 75.
124. McClellan to Lincoln, June 20, 1862. — Records, series i, vol.
xi, part i, 48.
125. Lincoln to McClellan, June 21, 1862. — Work sii, 185; Records,
series i, vol. xi, part i, 48.
126. For an authenticated copy of the letter, see Nicolay & Hay v,
447-449. It is also to be found in McPherson, 385-386; McClel-
lan, 487-489; Records, series i, vol. xi, part i, 73-74.
127. McClellan, 444-445.
128. /ftiJ.,446.
129. W. C. Prime, in McClellan, 489-490.
130. Gilmore, 75-76; Nicolay & Hay vi, 121-126.
FP. 401-407 NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII 493
131. Order of July 11, 1862. — Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii,
314.
132. McClellan, 456.
133. Halleck did not reach Washington untQ July 23.
134. McClellan's morning report of July 20, 1862, showed present
for duty, exclusive of Dix's corps at Fortress Monroe, 91,694.
Lee's return for the same day, excluding the Department of North
Carolina, was 78,891. — Records, series i, vol. xi, part iii, 329, 645.
Most of McClellan's officers shared his delusion as to the strength
of the enemy. See Halleck's Memorandum and Keys's letter.
Ibid., 338, 339. But Meigs, at Headquarters in Washington, came
much nearer the mark. — Ibid., 340-341.
135. By the President's order of June 26, 1862, the forces under
Generals Frdmont, Banks, McDowell, and Sturgis were consoli-
dated into the Army of Virginia, with General Pope at its head.
136. The entire correspondence is published in Records, series i,
vol. xi, part i, 81-84.
137. The first was General Victor Le Due, whose private diary is
quoted in American Conflict ii, 171 ; the second was the Comte de
Paris ii, 249.
138. McClellan to Halleck, August 12, 1862. — Records, series i,
vol. xi, part i, 87-88.
139. August 10, 1862. — McClellan, 465^66. See also Pleasanton
to Marcy, August 11, 1862. — Flower, 173.
140. Halleck to McClellan, August 10, 1862. — Records, series i,
vol. xi, part i, 86.
141. Halleck to McClellan, August 7, 1862. — Records, series i, vol.
xi, part iii, 359-360; McClellan to Burnside, August 20, 1862.
— Records, series i, vol. xii, part iii, 605; McClellan, 466, 468,
482, 508.
142. August 29, 1862. Records, series i, vol. xi, part i, 98; Com-
mittee on the War, part i, 463-464; McClellan, 515.
143. " I have no sharpshooters except the guard around my camp.
I have sent off every man but those, and will now send them with
the train, as you direct. I will also send my only remaining squa-
dron of cavalry with General Sumner. I can do no more. You now
have every man of the Army of the Potomac who is within my
reach." — McClellan to Halleck, August 30, 1862. — Committee
on the War, part i, 468; McClellan, 520; Records, series i, vol. xi,
part i, 101.
144. Records, series i, vol. xi, part i, 103; McClellan, 520. The por-
tion that had not been sent forward comprised McClellan's stafip,
less than one hundred orderlies, invalids, etc., about his camp, and
part of a corps left near Fortress Monroe.
145. Records, series i, vol. xi, part i, 102; McClellan, 522-524.
494 NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII pp. 407-412
146. Records, series i, vol. xi, part i, 102.
147. Pope's most objectionable utterance was the Address to the
Army, dated July 14, 1862. In this he said : —
" I have come to you from the West, where we have always
seen the backs of our enemies, — from an army whose business it
has been to seek the adversary, and to beat him when he was
found; whose policy has been attack and not defence. In but one
instance has the enemy been able to place our western armies in
defensive attitude. I presume that I have been called here to pur-
sue the same system, and to lead you against the enemy. It is my
purpose to do so, and that speedily. I am sure you long for an op-
portunity to win the distinction you are capable of achieving. That
opportunity I shall endeavor to give you. Meantime I desire you
to dismiss from your minds certain phrases, which I am sorry to
find so much in vogue amongst you. I hear constantly of ' taking
strong positions and holding them,' of ' lines of retreat,' and of
* bases of supplies.' Let us discard such ideas. The strongest posi-
tion a soldier should desire to occupy is one from which he can
most easily advance against the enemy. Let us study the probable
lines of retreat of our opponents, and leave our own to take care
of themselves."
148. McClellan to his wife, July 22, 1862. — McClellan, 454.
149. Records, series i, vol. xi, part i, 98. — This despatch was sent
on the afternoon of August 29. The battle occurred on August
29 and 30; that of the first day is sometimes called the Battle of
Groveton.
150. Lincoln's reply read: —
" Yours of to-day just received. I think your first alternative, to
wit, ' to concentrate all our available forces to open communication
with Pope,' is the right one; but I wish not to control. That I
now leave to General Halleck, aided by your counsels." — Re-
cords, series i, vol. xi, part i, 98.
151. Nicolay & Hay vi, 23.
152. In the evening of August 31, Halleck telegraphed to McClel-
lan: —
" I beg of you to assist me in this crisis with your ability and
experience. I am utterly tired out." — Records, series i, vol. xi,
part i, 103.
153. Pope to Halleck, August 31, 1862. — Committee on the War,
part i, 470; Pope to Halleck, September 2, 1862. — Records, series
i, vol. xii, part iii, 797.
154. Halleck himself did not know Lincoln's purpose in the matter
until he heard it announced to McClellan. See Halleck to Pope,
October 10, 1862. — Records, series i, vol. xii, part iii, 820.
155. :Nicolay & Hay vi, 23.
pp. 413-422 NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII 495
156. For these conversations, see Welles, 197-198; and Kelley, 73-
75.
157. McClellan to his wife, September 5, 1862. — McClellan, 567.
158. McClellan to his wife, September 7, 1862. — Ibid., 567.
159. Lincoln to McClellan, September 12, 1862. — Records, series i,
vol. xix, part ii, 270; Works ii, 233.
160. Lincoln to McClellan, September 15, 1862. Works ii, 236.
161. " It was heart-rending to see how Lee's army had been slashed
by the day's fighting. Nearly one fourth of the troops who went
into the battle were killed or wounded. We were so badly crushed
that at the close of the day ten thousand fresh troops could have
come in and taken Lee's army and everything it had." — General
Lougstreet, in Battles and Leaders ii, 670. By noon of the follow-
ing day, McClellan had more than twice that number of fresh troops,
and troops that had not taken part, to any considerable extent, in
the battle.
162. McClellan's own language. — Records, series i, vol. xix, part i,
70.
163. Kelley, 75.
164. McClellan to his wife, September 20, 1862. — McClellan, 613-
614. For other private letters of the same tenor, see those dated
September 21, September 22, and September 25. — Ihid.y 614-615.
165. McClellan, 627.
166. Browne, 529-^530. See also Nicolay & Hay vi, 175.
167. Records, series i, vol. xix, part i, 72.
168. Records, series i, vol. xix, part ii, 395.
169. Battles and Leaders ii, 544.
170. Halleck to McClellan, October 14, 1862. — Records, series i,
vol. xix, part ii, 421.
171. Lincoln to McClellan, October 13, 1862. — Records, series i,
vol. xix, part i, 13-14; Works ii, 245-247.
172. See four telegrams in Works ii, 250-251.
173. McClellan, 658.
174. For slightly different versions on different occasions, see Brooks,
336-337; Arnold, 297; Holland, 371; Browne, 528.
175. Nicolay & Hay vi, 188.
176. Francis P. Blair, Sr., McClellan's friend, tried to dissuade the
President from taking this step. " Lincoln listened with atten-
tion," relates Montgomery Blair, " to all my father had to say, but
was not communicative himself. But at the end of the conference
he rose up and stretched his long arms almost to the ceiling above
him, saying, * I said I would remove him if he let Lee's army get
away from him, and I must do so. He has got the ' slows,' Mi*.
Blair.'" — Montgomery Blair to George T.Curtis, January 21,
1880. — McClellan's Last Service, 96.
496 NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII pp. 422-425
177. Records, series i, vol. xix, part ii, 545.
178. " He arrived at Trenton at four o'clock in the morning of the
12th. Why was he sent there ? He was not then a citizen of Jfew
Jersey; he had no connection with the city of Trenton; there
was no noilitary duty for him to perform there; there was not a
Federal soldier in the place. He was sent there to disgrace him."
— Curtis's McClellan, 88.
179. Lincoln's popular majority, as recorded, was 494,567. But the
soldier vote of Kansas, Minnesota, and Vermont, that arrived too
late to be counted, together with certain votes which were rejected
on technical grounds, would have given him a majority of over
half a million. His electoral vote should have been 213, as one of
the three Nevada electors died before the Electoral College met.
180. Browne, 673. See also Seward ii, 250.
INDEX
INDEX
Abolitionists, merged in Republi-
can Party, 121, 454; clamor
for emancipation, 297; ap-
prove Fremont's proclamation,
298, 302-304; condemn Lin-
coln, 303, 304, 313-315; cling
to Fremont, 320-323; McClel-
lan's contempt for, 381.
Adams, Charles Francis, receives
message on attitude of Great
Britain, 151, 457, 458; letter
from R. H. Dana, 462; eulo-
gizes Seward at Lincoln's ex-
pense, 149, 150, 454, 455.
Adams, James, controversy with
Lincoln, 64, 65.
Adams, John, plans to make
Knox senior Major-General,
476 ; Lincoln ranked with,
425.
Adams, John Quincy, appoints
Clay Secretary of State, 455;
influence over Monroe, 461;
admired by Seward, 123; eulo-
gized by Seward, 461.
Albany Regency, vanquished by
Seward, 122.
Alexandria, Va., the Hutchinsons
sing to troops at, 352, 353.
Allen, Robert, makes charges
against Lincoln and N. W. Ed-
wards, 52; Lincoln answers,
53, 54.
Alton, 111., scene of a Lincoln-
Douglas debate, 452.
American Psirty. See Know-No-
thing Party.
Anderson, Robert, in Black Hawk
War, 445; asks relief for Sum-
ter, 139.
Anderson, W. G., disputes with
Lincoln, 448.
Anderson's Creek, Lincoln ferry-
ing ^t, 17.
Andrew, John A., on committee
that notifies Lincoln of first
nomination, 29.
Andrews, Edward W., dismissed
for supporting McClellan, 256;
reinstated, 257.
Antietam, Battle of, 414.
Anti-Masons, 121.
Anti-slavery Democrats merged
in Republican Party, 121, 454.
Armstrong, Jack, wrestles with
Lincoln, 21,22; becomes Lin-
coln's friend, 22.
Arnold, Benedict, Stephen Ar-
nold Douglas likened to, 449.
Asbury, Henry, receives letter
from Lincoln on slavery, 452,
453.
Ashley, James M., confers secretly
with Stanton, 223.
Ashmun, George, on committee
that notifies Lincoln of first
nomination, 29.
Atlanta, Siege of, 424.
Auburn, N. Y., Seward's tomb at,
156.
Baird, Isaac P., charged with
desertion, allowed to reenlist,
260, 261.
Baker, Edward D., defended by
Lincoln from hostile audience,
56, 57, 447; helps to protect
Linder, 57; in "great debate"
of 1840, 80, 81.
Baldwin, Joseph G., applies for a
pass, 232, 233.
Ball's Bluff, Battle of, 345.
Baltimore, Md., scene of Demo-
cratic Convention in 1860, 116;
need of protection, 174; Na-
tional Union Convention at,
324, 325.
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 345,
357-359, 375.
Banks, Nathaniel P., counsels Re-
500
INDEX
publicans to support Douglas,
93, 450, 451; appointed corps
commander, 488; at Winches-
ter, 375; at Manassas Junc-
tion, 376; in Shenandoah cam-
paign, 316; assigned to corps
under Pope, 318, 319, 493;
seeks to extend authority, 241.
Barnard, John G„ favors overland
route to Richmond, 475, 488.
Barnes, Joseph K., alarmed about
Stanton's health, 285.
Barney, Hiram, resigns collector-
ship at New York, 200; source
of trouble between Lincoln and
Chase, 200-202, 217; offered
mission to Portugal, 201.
Bates, Edward, receives votes
for presidential nomination in
1860, 454; listed for cabinet
office, 128; advises against
provisioning Sumter, 143; non-
committal as to Sumter, 144;
signs protest against McClel-
lan, 278.
Beauregard, Gustave T:, suggests
"Quaker guns," 488, 489; on
the Peninsula, 384.
Beckwith, Hiram W., is told Lin-
coln's story of the fighters, 102,
103.
Bell, John, nominated for presi-
dency, 118; the vote, 454.
Benjamin, Charles F., on Stan-
ton's political tolerance, 473;
on Hooker's appointment to
command, 475.
Benton, Thomas H., has Fremont
sent on western expeditions,
290; aggressive personality,
301; friendship for the Blairs,
480.
Berry, William F., in partnership
with Lincoln, 445.
Bird, Francis W., urges Fremont
for Governor Stanley's place,
322, 323.
Bimey, James G., attacked by
pro-slavery mob, 158; in-
dicted for harboring slave, 158.
Bismarck, Prince, neglects eco-
nomic questions, 464.
Bissell, William H., elected gov-
ernor of Illinois, 450.
Black Hawk War, Governor Rey-
nolds summons volunteers, 34;
Lincoln in, 34— 45, 445; pursuit
of Indians, 40; appeal to dis-
banded troops for further ser-
vice, 43, 44; Zachary Taylor,
Winfield Scott, Albert Sidney
Johnston, and Robert Ander-
son in, 445 ; Ehjah lies and
Jacob M. Early in, 445.
Blair, Francis P., Jr., helps keep
Missouri in Union, 307; sup-
ports Fremont, 307; finds
fault with Fremont, 306-309;
arrested by Fremont, 310;
makes charges against Fre-
mont, 310, 311, 480, 481; as-
sails Chase in congressional
speech, 212-214; given com-
mand of army corps, 213, 214,
467.
Blair, Francis P., Sr., Jackson's
kitchen counselor, 212; up-
holds Jackson's attitude toward
South Carolina, 140; friend-
ship for Benton, 480; counsels
Republicans to support Doug-
las, 93, 450, 451; credited with
Fremont's nomination in 1856,
307; on committee that noti-
fies Lincoln of first nomination,
29 ; reads draft of Lincoln's in-
augioral address, 456; supports
Fremont for Western Depart-
ment, 307; tries to prevent
McClellan's removal, 495; in-
fluences Jefferson Davis to
appoint peace commission,
153; suggests Mexican crusade,
460.
Blair, Montgomery, listed for
cabinet office, 128; appoint-
ment opposed by Seward, 129;
appointed to cabinet, 131;
urges holding of Sumter, 140,
143, 144; in consultation about
Sumter, 459; supports Fre-
mont, 307; letters from his
brother condemning Fremont,
307, 308; sent to straighten
out Western Department, 308,
309; advises Fremont's re-
moval, 309; consulted by Lin-
coln during McClellan's illness,
INDEX
501
349, 350; opposes President's
plan, 349, 486 j- disapproves of
protest against McClellan, 278;
withdraws support from Mc-
Clellan, 280; disagreement with
Stanton, 245, 246; criticises
officers upon loss of estate, 282;
dismissal demanded by Stan-
ton, 282; inimical to Chase,
212, 281; letter from Lmcohi
about Frank Blair, 467; " the
stormy petrel," 281 ; dismissal
implied by National Conven-
tion, 282, 477, 483; resigna-
tion accepted, 477, 483; of-
fered foreign mission, 483; asks
Welles to answer C. F. Adams's
address, 149.
Blanker, Louis, favors Chesa-
peake route to Richmond, 362,
475, 488; division detached
from McClellan's army, 372,
375.
Bloody Island, scene of Lincoln-
Shields duel, 71, 78, 447.
Bloomington, 111., Lincoln and
Douglas meet at, 88; Douglas
speaks at, 96.
Bonaparte, Napoleon, Fremont
likened to, 315; McCleUan com-
pared to, 328, 332; McCleUan
contrasted with, 342, 346; on
maneuvering 100,000 men,
391; holds troops by victories,
411; on the commander guided
by commissaries, 421.
Boniface Vm, Pope, induced to
resign, 146.
Booth, John Wilkes, assassinates
Lincoln, 287, 288, 425.
Border States, The, Seward's plan
to hold, 141; concessions to,
182; influence of slaveholders
in, 184; clash in Missouri, 293-
296, 298, 467; attempt to hold
Mis.souri, Kentucky, and Mary-
land, 296; Lincoln's Border
State policy, 296, 298, 300;
Fremont's emancipation pro-
clamation, 297-304.
Boutwell, George S., on commit-
tee that notifies Lincoln of first
nomination, 29.
Bowen, Henry C, consulted by
Lincoln about Fremont, 315,
316.
Bowles, Samuel, covmsels Repub-
licans to support Douglas, 93,
450, 451.
Breckinridge, John C, favors
Douglas's return to Senate,
451; nominated for presidency
by pro-slavery Democrats, 118;
supported by Stanton, 227,
469, 470; the vote, 454.
Bright, John, employs "Cave of
Adullam" witticism, 483.
Brooks, William T. H., reported
by Burnside for discipline, 474.
Brough, John, receives letter
from Chase criticising adminis-
tration, 176.
Browning, Orville H., in "great
debate" of 1840, 80,81; reads
draft of Lincoln's inaugural ad-
dress, 456; suggests omission,
458; letter from Lincoln on
Fremont's proclamation, 298,
299.
Bryant, William Cullen, asks com-
mand of negro troops for Fre-
mont, 322.
Buchanan, James, appointed Sec-
retary of State, 455; opposed
for presidential nomination
by Douglas, 86; vote in 1856,
450; appoints Cass Secretary
of State, 455; favors admission
of Kansas with pro-slavery
constitution, 92; his adherents
assail Douglas, 117; his hostil-
ity helps Douglas, 110; allows
national authority to be de-
stroyed, 132; appoints Stanton
Attorney-General, 223; mem-
bers of cabinet expose conspir-
acy against Union, 133, 223;
error in dealing with South,
143; leaves credit of govern-
ment impaired, 166; letters
from Stanton criticising Lin-
coln's administration, 225,
226; letter from Stanton on
appointment to Lincoln's cabi-
net, 228.
Buell, Don Carlos, relieved from
command, 266, reinstated, 267;
removed, 267.
502
INDEX
Bull Run, First Battle of, 328, 340;
defeat charged to Lincoln, 226.
Bull Run, Second Battle of, 278,
279, 409, 494.
Biu"lingame, Anson, counsels Re-
publicans to support Douglas,
93, 450, 451.
Bumside, Ambrose E., ordered to
reenforce McClellan, 394, 492;
declines command of Army of
Potomac, 405; again declines,
413; succeeds McClellan, 422;
issues General Orders No. 8,
268, 269; succeeded by Hooker,
270.
Bvirr, Aaron, duel with Hamilton,
447.
Butler, Benjamin F., advised to
free slaves within his lines, 180;
incited against Lincoln by
Chase, 208, 209; on Chase's
rivalry with Lincoln, 466, 467.
Butler, William, challenged by
Shields, 72.
Cabinet, its constitutional status,
459.
Caesar, Julius, holds troops by
victories, 411.
Calhoim, John, appoints Lincoln
deputy surveyor, 48, 445; in
"great debate" of 1840, 80, 81.
Calhoun, John C, Seward con-
trasted with, 123.
California, the winning of, 291;
discovery of gold in, 291; en-
ters the Union, 291.
Cameron, Simon, receives votes
for presidential nomination in
1860, 454; listed for cabinet
office, 128; advises against
provisioning Sumter, 143; di-
rected to relieve Sumter, 144;
scolded by Chase for extrava-
gance, 177, 178; investigates
Western Department, 310; con-
demns Fremont, 310, 311 ; tries
to remedy abuses in Western
Department, 480; leniency to
Fremont, 311, 312; issues pass
to the Hutchinsons, 352; let-
ter from McClellan requiring
control of appointments, 361;
resigns from cabinet, 486; suc-
ceeded by Stanton, 227; on
Chase's rivalry with Lincoln,
466, 467.
Campbell, John A., intermedi-
ary between Confederates and
Seward, 143, 144, 458; reports
Sumter wiU be evacuated, 144,
145; Confederate commissioner
at Hampton Roads Conference,
153, 462; remains in Rich-
mond as mediator, 471; tries
to reassemble Virginia legisla-
ture, 247, 248.
Canada, to be aroused against
European intervention, 147.
Canby, Edward R. S., in Depart-
ment of Gulf, 241.
Carrick's Ford, Battle of, 327.
Carson, Enoch T., receives letter
from Chase criticising admin-
istration, 175, 464.
Cartter, David K., transfers Ohio
votes to Lincoln in convention,
463; on committee that noti-
fies Lincoln of first nomina-
tion, 29.
Cass, Lewis, opposed for presi-
dential nomination by Doug-
las, 86; appointed Secretary
of State, 455.
Catholics, Seward's indulgence
towards, 124.
Central America, to be aroused
against European intervention,
147.
Chancellorsville, Battle of, 270.
Chandler, Zachariah, influences
Winfield Scott's retirement,
341 ; loses confidence in McClel-
lan, 362; rejoices at Lincoln's
anger, 370; member of Com-
mittee on Conduct of War, 486.
" Charcoals," Missoiui, incited
against Lincoln by Chase, 208,
209; oppose Lincoln's renomi-
nation, 467.
Charles, Archduke of Austria,
could maneuver 100,000 men,
391.
Charleston, 111., scene of a Lin-
coln-Douglas debate, 112, 452;
riot at, 236, 471.
Chase, Salmon P., graduate of
Dartmouth, 157; practices law
INt)EX
S03
in Cincinnati, 157; career, 157-
159, 163, 462; defends Birney
from pro-slavery mob, 158;
nicknamed " attorney-general
for runaway negroes," 158;
suffers from pro-slavery preju-
dice, 463; elected to U. S.
Senate, 159; helps Lincoln
against Douglas, 159, 160; op-
poses Douglas in Senate, 98
deserves presidencv, in Lin
coin's opinion, 126, 127, 160
candidate for presidential nom-
ination in 1860, 116, 157, 159
adherents vote for Lincoln in
convention, 160,463; sounded
by Lincoln as to secretaryship,
160; listed for cabinet office,
128; opposes Seward's ap-
pointment, 129; appointment
to Lincoln's cabinet opposed
by Seward, 129-131, 161, 187;
appointed to Treasury, 131,
161; declines Treasury portfo-
lio, 162; persuaded by Lincoln
to accept, 162; attitude toward
Sumter, 457; advises provision-
ing Sumter, 143, 144; imposing
appearance, 162; character and
ability, 162-166; magnitude
of task, 166-168; compared to
Turgot, Necker, Hamilton, and
Gallatin, 168; entrusted en-
tirely with finances, 168, 169;
effects loans on his sole author-
ity, 169; directed to improve
safeguards in Currency Bureau,
170-172; aspires to influence
in War Department, 172-182;
employed in military matters,
172, 173; favors McClellan's
appointment, 486; announces
McClellan's appointment as
Major-General, U. S. A., 484;
consulted by Lincoln during
McCleUan's illness, 349, 350;
favors President's plan, 349;
loses confidence in McClellan,
362; interrogates McClellan,
173, 350; approves of McClel-
lan's deposition from command
in chief, 489; insists on removal
of McClellan, 175, 410; urges
Stanton's appointment, 227;
letter from Stanton about lat-
ter's health, 285; secures pass
for the Hutchinsons, 352; car-
ries Whittier's hymn into cabi-
net meeting, 353; in campaign
against Norfollv, 173; letter
from Hoadly on Fremont's
proclamation, 303, 304, 479;
letter from Richard Smith on
Fremont's removal, 314, 315;
letter from Washburne con-
demning Fremont and Mc-
Kinstry, 480, 481 ; letter from
Plumley defending Fremont,
481; letter to Bishop Mcll-
vaine, 488; limitations upon
his authority, 173, 174; criti-
cises administration, 174—182;
faultfinding letters: to Edwin
D. Mansfield, 174, 175, 178,
464; to Enoch T. Carson, 175,
464; to WilUam M. Dickson,
175, 176, 464; to Murat Hal-
stead, 176, 464; to O. FoUett,
176, 464; to John Brough,
176; to John Sherman, 176,
177; to Horace Greeley, 177; to
Rev. Dr. Leavitt, 177; to A.
S. Latty, 178, 464; to Wayne
McVeigh, 181; to T. C. Day,
486; condemns cabinet meth-
ods, 176, 177; accuses War
Department of extravagance,
177, 178; urges Lincoln to
check waste, 178; defence of
Hunter's proclamation ignored,
179, 180; writes Butler and
Pope on emancipation, 180;
explains to McDowell the re-
call from Fredericksburg, 173;
urges advancement of Rose-
crans, 267; conference after
Chickamauga, 173; advises
steps to hold Maryland in
Union, 174; supports Hooker,
269, 270; signs protest against
McClellan, 278; orders money
removed after Second Bull
Run, 279; opposition to Mc-
Clellan's reinstatement, 180,
280, 281, 412; animus against
Lincoln, 182, 202-204, 212;
underrates Lincoln, 182-184;
displeased at Lincoln's levity,
504
INDEX
184-186 ; rivalry with Sew-
ard, 186, 187 ; complains of
Seward to Weed, 187, 188;
attempt to have Seward re-
moved from cabinet, 188-194;
resigns from cabinet, 192 ;
withdraws resignation, 193 ;
difference with Lincoln as to
collectorship at Hartford,
194-196; friction with Lin-
coln about patronage, 196, 197;
San Francisco appointments
revised by Lincoln, 197 ; dif-
ference with Lincoln about
removal of Victor Smith,
198-200, 465 ; resigns, 199 ;
resignation withdrawn, 199,
200 ; difference with Lincoln
over Hu-am Barney, 200-202,
217 ; canvass for presidential
nomination, 202-215, 466, 467;
favored by Radicals, 205 ;
disavows Pomeroy circular,
206; offers to resign, 206; ap-
preciated by Lincoln, 208 ;
withdraws from canvass for
nomination, 212; succeeded
by Fremont as Anti-Slavery
candidate, 323; assailed by
the Blairs, 212-214, 281; dif-
ference with Lincoln about
assistant treasurership, 215-
220; resigns, 218; Lincoln re-
fuses to reinstate him, 219, 220;
regrets resignation, 221; ap-
pointed Chief Justice, 221 ; ad-
ministers oath of office to Lin-
coln, 222; favors an answer
to C. F. Adams's address, 461.
Chicago, 111., hostile audience at,
refuses to hear Douglas, 87;
gives Douglas fine reception,
95; Lincoln answers Douglas's
speech at, 96; Douglas closes
canvass of 1858 at, 110; scene
of RepubUcan Convention of
1860, 116.
Chickamauga, Battle of, mid-
night conference after, 173.
Chittenden, Lucius E., protests
against Chase's resignation,
219.
Cincinnati, O., Chase practices
law in 157; pro-slavery preju-
dice of, 158, 463; McClellan
in railroad business at, 329,
330; Lincoln and Douglas
speak at, 115; Lincoln's ad-
dress in, 451; indignation in,
over Fremont's removal, 314,
315.
Cisco, John J., resigns as Assist-
ant Treasurer, 215; trouble
over successor, 216-220; with-
draws resignation, 217.
Clary, BiU, matches Armstrong
against Lincoln, 21.
" Clary's Grove Boys," The, their
lawlessness, 19, 20; brutal pas-
times, 22-24; Lincoln's in-
fluence over, 22-26; in Black
Hawk War, 34-43.
Clay, Cassius M., helps Lincoln
against Douglas, 159, 160.
Clay, Henry, his "American sys-
tem " supported by Lincoln,
47; his defeat, 47, 48; Seward
contrasted with, 123; on duel-
ing, 447; appointed Secretary
of State by J. Q. Adams, 455;
declines State portfolio under
Harrison, 455.
Cleveland, Grover, Uke Stephen
A. Douglas in one particular,
110.
Cleveland, O., "Mass Conven-
tion" at, 324, 325.
Cochrane, John, reported by
Burnside for disciphne, 474;
nominated for vice-presidency
in 1864, 324; withdraws from
canvass, 483.
Coles County Riot, 236-238, 471.
Colfax, Schuyler, helps Lincoln
against Douglas, 159, 160;
counsels Republicans to sup-
port Douglas, 93, 450, 451;
protests against McClellan's in-
action, 347.
CoUamer, Jacob, receives votes
for presidential nomination in
1860, 454; on committee that
asks Lincoln to reconstruct
cabinet, 189.
Columbia, District of, vmder mili-
tary governor, 488.
Columbus, O., Lincoln and Doug-
las speak at, 115.
INDEX
505
Conde, Prince of, holds troops by
victories, 411.
Conway, Moncure D., urges Fre-
mont's appointment to Stan-
ley's place, 322, 323.
Cooper Institute Speech, delivered
by Lincoln, 115, 116.
Cooper, Peter, asks command of
negro troops for Fremont, 322.
Corwin, Thomas, helps Lincoln
against Douglas, 159, 160.
Covode, John, member of Com-
mittee on Conduct of War, 486.
Crawford, Mrs, Josiah, quotes
Lincohi's " I '11 be President," 7.
Crawford, Martin J., Confederate
commissioner, 143, 457, 458;
at consultation of Southerners,
458.
Crawford, William H., intrigues
against Monroe, 465, 466; as-
sailed bv Ninian Edwards, 468.
Crimean War, 329.
Crittenden, John J., opposes
Douglas in Senate, 98; writes
letters supporting Douglas,
110, 451; receives letter from
Morehead on Seward's atti-
tude, 458.
Ciutin, Andrew G., appoints com-
missioners to receive soldiers'
votes, 238, 239; asks more time
to fill quota, 470.
Curtis, Samuel R., effects Fr^
mont's removal, 312, 313.
Dana, Charles A., attends to pro-
motion of Williamson, 244;
consulted about draft rioters,
261, 262; witnesses Stanton's
vexation at Lincoln's levity,
287, 478; on Lincoln's strength,
441, 442; letter from Stanton
praising G. H. Thomas, 474.
Dana, Richard H., wT-ites to C. F.
Adams, 462; discusses Chase's
appointment to chief justice-
ship with Lincoln, 469.
Davis, David, reads draft of Lin-
coln's inaugural address, 456;
letter to Weed on Chase's can-
didacy, 467.
Davis, Jefferson, Seward's pur-
pose to crush, 141; forecast
of success, 226; favored by
northern inaction, 345; quar-
rels with R. M. T. Hunter, 460;
appoints peace commission,
153.
Dawes, Henry L., confers secretly
with Stanton, 223; secures
pardon of imprisoned quarter-
master, 253-255; investigates
Western Department, 480.
Dawson, John, elected to legisla-
ture with Lincoln, 445, 446;
one of the " Long Nine," 447.
Day, Timothy C, receives letter
from Chase criticising adminis-
tration, 486.
Dayton, William L., receives votes
for presidential nomination in
1860, 454; suggested by Lin-
coln as Secretary of State, 130.
De Jamette, Daniel C, at consul-
tation of Southerners, 458.
Delaware, Fort, 329.
Deming, Henry C, chats with
Lincoln about Cleveland Con-
vention, 325, 483.
Democratic Party, Douglas joins,
80; first State Convention in
Illinois, 445; nominates Pierce
for presidency, 85, 86; not pre-
pared for anti-slavery princi-
ples, 158; committing itself to
slavery, 92; vote cut doT\Ti by
Fremont, 292; northern fac-
tion supports Douglas, 93; en-
dorses Douglas for reelection to
U. S. Senate, 94; administra-
tion faction opposes Douglas,
93, 110; reelects Douglas to
Senate, 113; divides on slavery
question, 116-118; northern
faction nominates Douglas for
presidency, 116; pro-slavery
wing nominates Breckinridge
for presidency, 118; former
Democrats in Lincoln's cabi-
net, 128; appropriates McClel-
lan's laurels, 347 ; overtures
to McCleUan, 400; nominates
McClellan for presidency, 423.
Democrats, Independent, favor
anti-slavery cause, 158; plat-
form and appeal written by
Chase, 163.
5o6
INDEX
Dennison, William, appoints Mc-
Clellan Major-General of Vol-
unteers, 330; letter from Chase
announcing McClellan's ap-
pointment as Major-General
U. S. A., 484; awaits McClellan
for conference, 340; interview
with Lincoln about McClellan,
489.
Pickerson, Edward N., counsel in
McCormick reaper case, 224.
Dickson, William M., receives
letter from Chase criticising
administration, 175, 176, 464.
Dix, John A., receives letter from
Stanton criticising adminis-
tration, 225; consults Stanton,
469.
Dixon, James, causes rejection of
Howard for collectorship, 194;
recommends Goodman, 195.
Donelson, Fort, capture of, 487.
Doubleday, Abner, his letters
from Sumter read by Lincoln,
458.
Douglas, Stephen A., meets Lin-
coln at Vandalia, 28, 443; Lin-
coln's comment on, 28; career
contrasted -Rath Lincoln's, 79,
80, 84, 99, 104, 105; canvass for
State's Attorney, 80; elected
to legislature, 80; challenges
Lincoln and others to debate,
80; the "great debate" in
1840, 80-82; opposes Lincoln
on the stump, 82; rivals Lin-
coln in affections of Mary Todd,
83; withdraws suit, 84; Jus-
tice of Illinois Supreme Court,
Congressman and U. S. Sena-
tor, 84; candidate for presi-
dential nomination in 1852,
85, 86; prevents nomination of
Cass, Marcy, and Buchanan,
86; declares Missouri Compro-
mise sacred and violates it, 86,
87, 449; indignation over his
course, 87; likened to Benedict
Arnold, 449; defends Kansas-
Nebraska Bill, 87, 88; worsted
in debate by Lincoln, 88, 89;
agrees to truce and breaksit,
90; encounters Owen Lovejoy
on the stump, 90; fails to se- 1
cure Shields's reelection, 90;
defends Dred Scott Decision,
91; introduces doctrine of Pop-
ular Sovereignty, 92; opposes
admission of Kansas with
pro-slavery constitution, 92,
93; leading Republicans favor
his return to Senate, 93-95,
114, 115, 450, 451; condemned
b)' Theodore Parker, 451; en-
dorsed for reelection to Senate,
94; opens canvass of 1858, 95;
tributes to Lincoln, 95, 101,
102, 104, 105; speaks in
Bloomington, 96; speaks in
Springfield, 96; accepts Lin-
coln's challenge to debate, 96;
appearance, ability, and char-
acter, 96-99; career, 98; skill
as orator and debater, 98, 100;
advantages over Lincoln, 99,
100, 111-113; trickery in de-
bate, 100, 105, 106, 452; praises
Lincoln to Forney, 101; reluc-
tant to debate with Lincoln,
101, 102 ; supporters certain
of victory, 102, 452; Lincoln-
Douglas debates, 103-113;
opening discussion at Ottawa,
104^106; debate at Freeport,
106, 109; asks Lincoln if per-
sonal quarrel is intended, 106;
he and Lincoln ask questions,
108, 109; favored by Buchan-
an's hostiUty, 110; letter in his
favor from Crittenden, 110;
makes many speeches, 110; fa-
vored by Illinois Central Rail-
road, 111-113, 331; assisted by
George B. McClellan, 113, 331;
reelected to Senate, 113; Re-
publicans lean towards him,
114, 115; visits Ohio to help
Democrats, 115; followed by
Lincoln, 115; arraigned in Lin-
coln's Cooper Institute speech,
115, 116; nominated for presi-
dency by northern Democrats,
116; loses support of South,
116-118,453; makes energetic
canvass, 118, 119; favored by
Stanton, 470; defeated by Lin-
coln, 119, 120; the vote, 454;
holds Lincohi's hat during
INDEX
507
delivery of inaugural address,
120, 454; death, 222.
Dred Scott Decision, defended by
Douglas, 91; inconsistent with
Popular Sovereignty, 92, 108,
109, 117, 118.
Dubois, Jesse K., explains Lin-
coln's influence in Illinois As-
sembly, 59.
Dyer, Heman, receives letter
from Stanton, 228, 470, 486.
Early. Jacob M., in Black Hawk
War, 445.
Early, Jubal A., conducts raid
near Washington, 282.
Eckert, Thomas T., receives Mc-
Clellan's harsh despatch, 276;
brings Lincoln election returns,
478.
Edwards, Ninian, assails William
H. Crawford, 468; appointed
Minister to Mexico, 468.
Edwards, Ninian W., attacked by
Allen, 52-54; one of the " Long
Nine," 83, 447; hospitalities to
Lincoln and Mary Todd, 83.
Edwards, Mrs. Ninian W., re-
ceives Mary Todd into her
home, 83.
Elkins, Williain F., one of the
" Long Nine," 447.
Ellsworth, Ephraim E., Lincoln's
comment on, 443.
Emancipation. See Slavery.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, on search
after power, 3.
English, R. W., prevents Lincoln-
Shields duel, 71.
Evarts, William M., on committee
that notifies Lincoln of first
nomination, 29.
Everett, Edward, opposes Doug-
las in Senate, 98.
Ewing, William L. D., attacks
"Long Nine," 60, 61; defeats
Lincoln for speakership, 62.
Farragut, David G., victor at Mo-
bile Bay, 424.
Fell, Jesse W., asks Douglas to
debate with Lincoln in 1854,
88, 89; urges Lincoln to seek
presidential nomination, 126,
127, 455; receives Lincoln's
autobiographical letter, 439.
Fenton, Reuben E., secures re-
duction in New York quota,
251; protests against McClel-
lan's inaction, 347.
Ferxero, Edward, reported by
Burnside for discipline, 474.
Fessenden, William P., opposes
Douglas in Senate, 98; anti-
slavery champion, 159; letter
from Grimes defending Fr^
mont, 481; on committee that
asks Lincoln to reconstruct
cabinet, 189; appointed Secre-
tary of Treasury, 220.
Field, Maunsell B., named by
Chase for assistant treasurer-
ship, 216, 217, 219, 220.
" Fighting Joe," sobriquet of
General Hooker, 268; origin
of, 474. See also Hooker, Jo-
seph.
Fillmore, Millard, in canvass of
1856, 292, 450.
" First Chronicles of Reuben,"
16, 442.
Fiske, Stephen, interviews Lin-
coln at inaugural ball, 456.
Fletcher, Job, Sr., one of the
"Long Nine," 447.
FoUett, Orren, receives letter
from Chase criticising adminis-
tration, 176, 464.
Forbes, Archibald, on McClellan,
487.
Forney, John W., told by Doug-
las of reluctance to debate with
Lincoln, 101.
Forquer, George, Lincoln's tri-
umph over, 50-52, 446.
Fors3rth, John, Confederate com-
missioner, 143, 457, 458.
Fox, Gustavus V., consulted
about Sumter, 459.
France, interference in American
affairs, 146, 459.
Francis, Simeon, editor Sangamo
Journal, 66; host of Mary
Todd, 68; names author of
" A Letter from the Lost Town-
ships," 68; publishes Lincoln's
speech in "great debate," 81.
Franklin, Benjamin, Lincoln
5o8
INDEX
ranked with, 425; discoveries
in electricity, 446.
Franklin, William B., consulted
by Lincoln during McClellan's
illness, 349, 350; favors Presi-
dent's plan, 349, 486; favors
Chesapeake route to Richmond,
362, 475, 488; commands di-
vision to which Hutchinsons
sing, 352, 353; division retained
to protect Washington, 273;
division asked for by McClellan,
274; sent to Peninsula, 275,
390; appointed corps com-
mander, 488; reaches Pope too
late, 409; reported by Burn-
side for discipline, 474.
Frederick the Great, on secrecy
in strategy, 351.
Fredericksburg, Battle of, 268.
Free Soil Party, favors anti-slav-
ery cause, 158; national plat-
form written by Chase, 163;
merged in Republican Party,
121, 454.
Freeport, 111., scene of a Lincoln-
Douglas debate, 106, 452.
Freeport Doctrine, 108, 109, 115,
452, 453 ; costs Douglas support
of South, 1 1 6-1 1 8 , 453 ; exposed
by Lincoln as futile, 119.
Fremont, John C, early career,
289, 290; marries Jessie Ann
Benton, 290; western explora-
tion, 290, 291; court-martialed,
291 ; first Senator from Califor-
nia, 291; canvass for presi-
dency in 1856, 289, 292, 450;
supported by Lincoln in 1856,
292; receives votes for presi-
dential nomination in 1860,
454; considered for French
mission, 292; appointed Major-
General, 293; ability and char-
acter, 294, 295; issues emanci-
pation proclamation, 297, 479;
wins popular approval, 298,
301-304; asked to modify pro-
clamation, 299, 300; declines
to modify voluntarily, 300-302,
479; explains to T. T. Taylor,
301, 479; commanded to mod-
ify proclamation, 303; incited
against Lincoln by Chase, 208,
209; condemned for Wilson's
Creek and Lexington, 304-306,
307; friendship with the Blairs,
307, 480; condemned by F. P.
Blair, Jr., 306-309; visited by
Meigs and Montgomery Blair,
308; joined by David Hunter,
308, 309; arrests F. P. Blair,
Jr., 310; removal advised by
Montgomery Blair, 309; under
charges made by F. P. Blair,
Jr., 310, 480, 481; investigated
by Cameron and Lorenzo
Thomas, 310, 311; disobeys
Lincoln's order, 311, 312; in-
vestigated by Committee on
Government Contracts, 480;
condemned by Washburne, 480,
481;' defended by Grimes and
Plumley, 481; removed from
command, 312, 313; farewell
address, 313, 481; popular in-
dignation over removal, 313-
315, 316; compared to Napo-
leon, 315; appointed to com-
mand of Mountain Depart-
ment, 316; letter from Lorenzo
Thomas advising economy, 481 ;
joined by Blenker's division,
372; in Shenandoah campaign,
316-318; disobeys orders, 317;
assigned to corps under Pope,
318, 493; victim of law passed
for his benefit, 482; resigns
command, 318-320; censori-
ous letter from Stanton, 319,
320; efforts to secure reap-
pointment, 320-323; suggested
for command of colored troops,
322; suggested to supersede
Stanley, 322, 323; succeeds
to Chase's following, 323; nom-
inated for presidency in 1864,
324, 423; resigns from army,
483; arraigns Lincoln, 324-
326; withdraws from canvass,
326, 424.
Fremont, Mrs. John C, marries,
290; menaces Lincoln, 301,
302, 479; demands copies of
faultfinding letters, 309.
Fry, James B., objects to recruit-
ing among Confederate pris-
oners, 249, 250; asked to re-
INDEX
509
duce New York quota, 251;
consulted on Hooker's appoint-
ment to command, 475.
Gaetano, Cardinal, induces Boni-
face VIII to resign, 146.
Gaines's Mill, Battle of, 276, 385.
Galesbxirg, 111., scene of a Lin-
coln-Douglas debate, 106, 452.
Gallatin, Albert, Chase compared
to, 168.
Garrison, WiUiam L., on Cleve-
land Convention, 325.
Gentry, Allen, on flat-boat voy-
age with Lincoln, 18.
Gentry, Mrs. Allen, on Lincoln's
early scholarship, 4, 439.
Gentry, James, hires Lincoln as
bow-hand, 18.
GentryviUe, Ind., Lincoln at, 5.
Giddings, Joshua R., helps Lin-
coln against Douglas, 159, 160;
challenges Ohio votes in Clii-
cago Convention, 463.
Gladstone, William E., Stanton
compared to, 230.
Godwin, Parke, asks command
of negro troops for Fremont,
322.
Gooch, Daniel W., member of
Committee on Conduct of War,
486.
Goodman, Edward, recommended
for coUectorship at Hartford,
195.
Grant, Ulysses S., urges Lincoln
to meet Confederate commis-
sioners, 153; favors improv-
ing army postal service, 246;
erroneous account of Stanton's
control over Lincoln, 247, 471;
captures Virginia troops, 248;
instructs Weitzel about Vir-
ginia legislature, 248; receives
explanation about recruiting
among Confederate prisoners,
250; would have won Penin-
sular Campaign, 391; from
the Rapidan to the James, 423;
difficulties in writing Memoirs,
471; on officer's refusal to
serve under one of lower rank,
482.
Great Britain, interference in
American affairs, 146, 459;
recognizes belligerency of Con-
federacy, 151; unfriendly at-
titude resented by Seward,
151,152.
Greeley, Horace, counsels Repub-
licans to support Douglas,
93, 450, 451; his approval of
Douglas troubles Lincoln, 94;
antagonism to Seward, 124;
letter from Chase criticising
administration, 177, 179, 180;
asks command of negro troops
for Fremont, 322.
Greene, William G., wins wager on
Lincoln's strength, 11, 12, 441.
Griffin, Charles, guiltless of dis-
loyalty at Second Bull Run,
410.
Grigsby, Aaron, marries Lincoln's
sister, 15.
Grigsby family, Lincoln's quarrel
with, 15-17; the " First Chron-
icles of Reuben," 16, 442.
Grigsby, Nathaniel, on Lincoln's
early scholarship, 4.
Grigsby, WiUiam, fights Lincoln's
step-brother, 16.
Grimes, James W., ascribes Fr^
mont's removal to his pro-
clamation, 313, 314; defends
Fremont, 481; on committee
that asks Lincoln to reconstruct
cabinet, 189.
Grinnell, Josiah B., secures Rice's
promotion, 26-^266; wins Stan-
ton's respect, 266; told by Lin-
coln of Mrs. Fremont's visit,
479.
Groveton, Battle of, 494.
Grow, Galusha A., protests against
McCleUan's inaction, 347.
Gwin, WiUiam M., intermediary
between Confederates and Sew-
ard, 458.
Hale, John P., opposes Douglas,
98; anti-slavery champion,
159.
Halleck, Henry W., ordered to re-
enforce McClellan, 394, 492; in
control, 175, 176; appointed
General-in-Chief, 277, 401 ; old
quarrel with Stanton, 277; sent
5IO
INDEX
to Harrison's Landing, 401;
favors McClellan's recall, 277,
402; questions celerity of Mc-
Clellan's movements, 403-405,
408; promises McCleUan com-
mand of all troops in Virginia,
405, 406; ignores McClellan's
appeals, 406-408; orders ques-
tioned by McCleUan, 408, 409;
unnerved by Second Bull Run,
279, 411; summons McCleUan
to his aid, 279, 409, 411, 494;
complains of McCleUan, 282,
409; present at reinstatement
of McCleUan, 411, 494; removal
desired by McCleUan, 416; or-
ders McCleUan to advance, 417;
on Stuart's raid, 418; disputes
with McCleUan about supplies,
420.
Halstead, Murat, receives letter
from Chase criticising admin-
istration, 176, 464.
Hamilton, Alexander, Chase com-
pared to, 168; on dueling, 447;
influence over Washington,
461 ; letter to Washington on
quarrel with Jefferson, 465.
Hamilton, James A., heads com-
mittee that asks for Seward's
removal, 155.
Hamlin, Hannibal, anti-slavery
champion, 159; Lincoln of-
fers to resign in his favor, 220;
discusses McClellan's inaction
with Lincoln, 420.
Hampton Roads Conference, at-
tended by Lincoln and Sew-
ard, 153; Lincoln's comment
on Stephens at, 28, 29.
Hanks, Dennis, considers Lincoln
lazy, 6; on Lincoln felling
trees, 10; on Thomas Lincoln's
severity, 440; intercedes for
Coles County rioters, 237, 238.
Hanover Court House, Battle of,
383.
Hardie, James A., at War Depart-
ment, 473.
Hardin, John J., prevents Lin-
coln-Shields duel, 71 ; asked to
measure swords used in Shields
affair, 73.
Harding, George, associated with
Lincoln in McCormick reaper
case, 224.
Harper's Ferry, operations
against, 357-359, 487.
Harrington, George, reports deci-
sion to relieve Sumter, 459.
Harris, Ira, on committee that
asks Lincoln to reconstruct
cabinet, 189; witnesses Lin-
coln's glee over Chase's resig-
nation, 192; consulted about
successor to Cisco, 216.
Harrison, William H., offers State
portfolio to Clay, 455; appoints
Webster Secretary of State,
455; inaugural address revised
by Webster, 135, 456, 457.
Harrison's Landing, Va., Army of
Potomac at, 387, 392-396.
Hartford, Coim., trouble over col-
lectorship at, 194, 195.
Hassler, John J. S., transferred to
regular army, 244, 245.
Hatch, O. M., measures height
with Lincoln, 443, 444; visits
McClellan's camp with Lincoln,
417.
Hatfield, David, resents hissing of
the Hutchinsons, 352, 353.
Haycraft, Samuel, describes juve-
nile Lincoln, 2, 439.
Hayti, 329.
Heintzehnan, Samuel P., favors
overland route to Richmond,
475, 488; approves plan for
Peninsular Campaign, 272, 370,
371; estimates on defence of
Washington, 371, 475, 489;
appointed corps commander,
361, 362.
Henry, A. G., receives letter from
Lincoln about V. Smith, 465.
Hemdon, Archer G., one of the
"Long Nine," 447.
Hemdon, William H., on Lin-
coln's strength, 11, 12, 441;
receives Lincoln's comments on
A. H. Stephens, 28; recalls
Lincoln's reference to Shields
affair, 73; asked about Shields
duel when East, 74; tries to
turn eastern Republicans from
Douglas, 94; on Lincoln's cour-
age, 447; letter from Theodore
INDEX
511
Parker condemning Douglas,
451.
Hicks, G. Montague, tries to excite
Lincoln against Stanton, 477.
Hicks, William, on Lincoln's cour-
age, 447.
Hitchcock, Ethan A., reports in-
adequate protection for Wash-
ington, 273, 475; advises against
sending Franklin to Peninsula,
275; declines to command
Army of Potomac, 405; testi-
fies before Committee on the
War, 476.
Hoadly, George, writes to Chase
on Fremont's proclamation,
303, 304, 315, 479.
Hoar, E. Rockwood, hopes Stan-
ton will be retained, 284, 285;
discusses Chase's appointment
to chief justiceship with Lin-
coln, 469.
Hogeboom, JohnT., appointment
makes trouble, 217.
Holman, William S., investigates
Western Department, 480.
Hooker, Joseph, ordered to storm
batteries on Potomac, 358 ;
order countermanded, 359 ;
receives letter from Chase
criticising administration, 179;
advancement opposed by Stan-
ton, 266, 269, 270; his charac-
ter, 268, 269; reported by Burn-
side for dismissal, 268, 269;
answers Burnside's charges,
474; supported by Chase, 269,
270; succeeds Bumside, 270;
defeated at ChancellorsviUe,
270, 475; would have won
Peninsular Campaign, 391. See
also " Fighting Joe."
Hough, R. M., letter from Lin-
coln on Rock Island case, 472.
Howard, Jacob M., on committee
that asks Lincoln to recon-
struct cabinet, 189.
Howard, Mark, rejected for col-
lectorsliip at Hartford, 194.
Howard, William A., confers se-
cretly with Stanton, 223.
Howe, Samuel G., urges Fremont's
appointment to Stanley's place,
322, 323.
Hoyt, John Wesley, guides Lin-
coln at Agricultural Fair, 27,
28.
Huidekoper, H. C, recruits among
Confederate prisoners, 249, 250.
Hunter, David, his emancipation
proclamation annulled by Lin-
coln, 179, 180; poor opinion of
Lincoln, 183, 184, 464; incited
against Lincoln by Chase, 208,
209; sent to help Fremont, 308,
309; succeeds Fremont, 312,
313; ordered to reenforce Mc-
Clellan, 394, 492.
Hiuiter, Robert M. T., defeated
by Seward, 141 ; intermediary
between Confederates and Sew-
ard, 458; resigns from Confed-
erate cabinet, 460 ; Confed-
erate commissioner at Hamp-
ton Roads Conference, 153, 462.
Hutchinsons, The, sing to the
soldiers, 352; in trouble over
Whittier's hymn, 352, 353.
lies, Elijah, in Black Hawk War,
445.
Illinois, in Western Department,
293; in Department of Ohio,
484.
Illinois Central Railroad, favors
Douglas against Lincoln, 111-
113, 331; retains Lincohi, 112,
330; McClellan vice-president
of, 113, 329, 330.
Indiana, in Department of Ohio,
484.
Irelan, John R., treats Lincoln-
Shields affair as a joke, 75, 76.
Jackson, Andrew, his uncommon
size and vigor, 32, 33; encoun-
ter with mutineers, 445; pro-
scriptive methods, 47; popu-
larity, 47, 48; not favorable
to regular cabinet meetings,
137; crushes sedition in South
Carolina, 140; influenced by
Van Buren, 459-461; Lincoln
compared to, 280 ; Lincoln
ranked with, 425.
Jackson, Claiborne F., tries to se-
cure secession of Missouri, 293.
Jackson, Thomas J., in Shenan-
512
INDEX
doah campaign, 316-318, 390;
on the Peninsula, 384; in Sec-
ond Bull Run, 408.
Jayne, Julia M., lampoons Shields,
67, 68; marries Lyman Trum-
buU„67, 68.
Jefferson, Thomas, not favorable
to regular cabinet meetings,
137; quarrels with Hamilton,
465; Lincoln ranked with, 425.
Jolmson, A. E. H., on Stanton's
dictatorial ways, 470.
Johnson, Andrew, member of
Committee on Conduct of War,
486; guided by Seward, 136.
Johnson, Reverdy, counsel in Mc-
Cormick reaper case, 224.
Johnston, Albert Sidney, in Black
Hawk War, 445.
Johnston, John, Lincoln's step-
brother: fights William Grigs-
by, 16, 17.
Johnston, Joseph E., at Manas-
sas and Centre ville, 342-345,
364, 366-369, 485, .488, 489;
"Quaker guns" episode, 368,
369, 488, 489; writes Lee about
McClellan, 377, 490; opposes
McClellan on Peninsula, 391.
Jonesboro, 111., scene of a Lincoln-
Douglas debate, 112, 452.
Judd, Norman B., on committee
that notifies Lincoln of first
nomination, 29; discusses cabi-
net with Lincoln, 130.
JuUan, George W., on Stanton's
behavior toward Lincoln, 234-
236; advocates Fremont's res-
toration to command, 321,
482, 483; member of Commit-
tee on Conduct of War, 486.
Kansas, struggle over admission
of, 91-94.
Kansas-Nebraska Bill, The, in-
troduced, 87; passed by Doug-
las, 449; what it cost Douglas,
91, 92.
Kasson, John A., secures promo-
tion of Colonel Williamson,
242-244; denoimces Stanton
in Congress, 244.
Kearney, Philip, prohibits Hutch-
inson concert, 353.
Kearney, Stephen W., conflict of
authority with Stockton, 291.
Kelley, William D., on committee
that notifies Lincoln of first
nomination, 29.
Kellogg, Orlando, tells cabinet a
story, 185.
Kentucky, attempt to keep in
Union, 296, 298, 300; in Moun-
tain Department, 316.
Keyes, Erasmus D., approves
plan for Peninsular Campaign,
272, 370, 371; estimates on
defence of Washington, 371,
475, 489; appointed corps com-
mander, 361, 362; favors Chesa-
peake route to Richmond, 362,
475, 488.
King, Preston, opposes action of
senatorial caucus against Sew-
ard, 189.
King, Rufus, division retained to
protect Washington, 273.
Kirkpatrick, WilUam, defeated
for captaincy by Lincoln, 35,
444.
Knob Creek, Ky., Lincoln family
leaves, 2, 3, 439.
Know-Nothing Party, opposed by
Seward, 124; seceders from,
nominate Fremont for presi-
dency, 478; merged in Repub-
blican Party, 121, 454.
Knox, Henry, favored by John
Adams for senior major-gen-
eralship, 476.
Lacon, 111., Lincoln ends pursuit
of Douglas at, 90.
Lambom, Josiah, in "great de-
bate" of 1840, 80, 81.
Lamon, Ward HiU, on Lincoln's
youthful speeches, 5; on Lin-
coln's feats of strength, 10, 11;
describes the Grigsby fight, 16,
17; on Lincoln's hardships in
canvass of 1858, 112; shows
lack of safeguards in Currency
Bureau, 170; letter to Wheeler
on Sabin's appointment, 473,
474.
Lane, Henry S., mentioned for
Lincoln's cabinet, 455.
Latty, A. S., receives letter from
INDEX
S^3
Chase criticising administra-
tion, 178, 464.
Laurel HiU, Battle of, 327.
Leavitt, Joshua, receives letter
from Chase criticising adminis-
tration, 177.
Lee, Robert E., willing to exchange
Capitals, 374, 490; receives
comment from J. E. Johnston
on McClellan, 377, 490; op-
poses McClellan on Peninsula,
391; invades Maryland, 413;
defeated and driven back, 414-
416,495; discussed by Lincoln,
418-420; recruits his army,
422; reaches inside track to
Richmond, 422.
Lexington, Siege of, 305, 306.
Liberty Party, favors anti-slavery
cause, 158; resolutions and ad-
dresses written by Chase, 163.
Lincoln, Abraham, early child-
hood, 1, 2, 439; hero of juve-
nile fight, 2; family migrates
to Indiana, 3; frontier Ufe and
hardships, 3; ambition for
learning, 3-7, 439, 440; youth-
ful stump speeches, 5; leader
at social gatherings, 5, 15, 16
considered lazy, 6; admiration
for Washington, 7, 440, 441
physical preeminence, 7-33
441, 442; autobiography, 8
439; farm work, 8-10; father's
severitv, 8, 440, 441; feats of
strength,9-12, 26, 27; temper-
ate habits, 12; pioneer ances-
tors, 8, 12, 13, 440; wrestling
matches, 13, 14, 19, 21, 22, 24,
25, 39, 40; writes lampoons,
15, 16; the "First Chronicles
of Reuben," 16, 442; quarrel
with Grigsbys, 15-17; ferry-
ing at Anderson's Creek, 17;
boating on the Mississippi, 18,
442; encounter with negroes,
18; visits father, 19; defeats
Daniel Needham, 19; begins
life in New Salem, 19, 441;
clerk in Offutt's store, 19;
wrestles with Armstrong, 21,
22; influence over "Clary's
Grove boys," 22-26; arbitrator
of quarrels, 25, 26; at Wiscon-
sin Agricultural Fair, 27, 28;
comments on A. H. Stephens,
28, 29; hobby for measuring,
29-32, 443, 444, see also Stat-
ure; comments on tall visitors,
443; describes P. H. Sheridan,
443; comments on Ellsworth,
443; tallest of Presidents, 33;
volunteers in Black Hawk War,
34, 445; elected captain, 35,
36, 444; his unruly company,
36-38, 40-42; punished for
disobedience, 37; disgraced for
misbehavior of company, 37,
38; defends helpless Indian,
40-42; resents injustice of reg-
ular officers, 42, 43; is mus-
tered out and reenlists, 43, 44;
445; candidate for legislature,
45-48; on the stump, 46-57;
his defeat, 47, 48, 445; part-
nership with Berry, 445; post-
master of New Salem, 445;
appointed deputy surveyor,
48; appearance on the stump,
49; four times elected to Illi-
nois Assembly, 49; in election
fights, 50; replies to Forquer,
50-52; studies Hghtning-rod,
446; answers Allen's attack,
52-54 ; on Whig electoral ticket
in 1840, 54; exposes Colonel
Taylor, 54-56; defends Baker
from hostile audience, 56, 57,
447; defends Linder from hos-
tile audience, 57; drives Rad-
ford from polls, 57, 58; leader
of " Long Nine," 58; campaign
to establish capital at Spring-
field, 58-61; Whig leader in
Illinois Assembly, 59, 62, 63;
replies to Ewing, 60, 61 ; replies
to J. B. Thomas, 61, 62; can-
didate for speakership, 62;
becomes J. T. Stuart's partner,
64; controversy with James
Adams, 64, 65; lampoons
Shields, 65-67; correspond-
ence with Shields, 69-71; ar-
ranges duel with Shields, 71;
settlement of Shields affair, 71,
72; writes to Speed on duels
nos. 2 and 3, 72; did not mean
to hurt Shields, 73; ashamed
5H
INDEX
of Shields quarrel, 73, 74; bio-
graphers gloss over Shields
affair, 74^77; disputes with
W. G. Anderson, 448; makes
humorous conditions for duel,
442, 443; gives advice against
quarreling, 77, 78; marries
Mary Todd, 84, 449; goes to
Congress, 84; counsel for Illi-
nois Central Railroad, 112,
330; elected to legislature and
resigns, 450; in Congress, 105;
supported for vice-presidency
in 1856, 452; endorsed for U. S.
Senate, 94, 451 ; " House divided
against itself," speech, 95, 453;
nominated for presidency in
1860, 116, 124, 125; notified of
nomination, 29; elected, 119,
120, 454; discusses cabinet ap-
pointments with Weed, 127,128;
discusses cabinet with Judd,
130; suggests Dayton for state
portfolio, 130; forms cabinet
of convention rivals, 207, 208;
considers problem of Sumter,
139, 140, 142-144; omits irri-
tating clause from inaugural
address, 142, 458; deficient in
"money sense,"' 168; estate in
1860, 463, 464; borrows money
for inauguration journey, 168;
attention called to dangers from
counterfeiting, 170; corrected
estimates of him, 184; his lev-
ity at cabinet meetings, 185,
186; reads Artemus Ward,
185; reads Petroleum V. Nas-
by, 478; indignant at Missouri
factions, 293, 294; Border
State policy, 296, 298, 300;
friendship with the Blairs, 212-
214, 282, 307; letter to Mont-
gomery Blair about Frank
Blair, 467; appoints McDowell,
Sumner, Heintzelman, and
Keyes corps commanders, 362;
appoints Banks corps com-
mander, 488; appoints Wads-
worth Military Governor, 488;
accepts levy of 300,000 troops
offered by Governors, 394; de-
termines upon emancipation,
400; receives bible from ne-
groes, 483; signs Confiscation
Act, 400; offers command of
Army of Potomac to Hitch-
cock, 405; offers the command
to Burnside, 405, 413; ap-
points Pope commander of
Army of Virginia, 493 ; appoints
Burnside commander of Army
of Potomac, 422; explains re-
cruiting among Confederate
prisoners, 250; letter to Hough
on Rock Island case, 472;
appoints Halleck General-in-
Chief, 277, 401; desires reelec-
tion, 204; not "wise to swap
horses while crossing a stream,"
205; canvass for renomination,
211,212,214,215; opposed by
Missouri Radicals, 467; renom-
ination, 215, 325, 423; lectures
cabinet on attempts to secure
Blair's dismissal, 283; accepts
Montgomery Blair's resigna-
tion, 483; offers him foreign
mission, 483; permits reassem-
bling Virginia legislature, 247,
248; revokes permission, 248;
assassination, 156, 287, 288,
425; ranked with Washington,
Franklin, Jefferson, Adams,
and Jackson, 425.
Lincoln and Douglas
Meets Douglas at Vandalia,
28, 443; comment on Douglas,
28; career contrasted with that
of Douglas, 79, 80, 99, 104, 105;
challenged by Douglas to de-
bate, 80; the "great debate"
in 1840, 80-82; opposes Doug-
las on the stump, 82; rivals
Douglas in affections of Mary
Todd, 83, 84; answers Douglas
in 1852, 85; answers Douglas
on Kansas-Nebraska BiU, 87,
88; follows Douglas for fur-
ther debate, 88, 89; asked by
Douglas for quarter, 89, 90;
grants truce which Douglas
violates, 90; defeated for U. S.
Senate, 90, 450; secures Trum-
bull's election to U. S. Senate,
90, 450; answers Douglas's de-
fence of Dred Scott Decision,
INDEX
S^S
91, 92; troubled by Greeley's
support of Douglas, 93, 94;
sends Herndon east to counter-
act it, 94; declares Douglas
unworthy Republican confi-
dence, 95, 451; follows up
Douglas, 95, 96; challenges
Douglas to debate, 96; Doug-
las's advantages over him, 99,
100, 111-113; on trickery of
Douglas in debate, 100, 105;
followers lack confidence in his
abihty, 102; tells Beck with
story of the fighters, 102, 103;
Lincoln-Douglas debates, 103-
113; opening discussion at
Ottawa, 104-106; debate at
Freeport, 106, 109; answers
Douglas as to personal quarrel,
106; he and Douglas ask ques-
tions, 108, 109; his hardships
in canvass of 1858, 112, 113;
defeated for the Senate, 113;
combats Republican leaning
towards Douglas, 114, 115,
451; follows Douglas into
Ohio, 115, 451; speaks in Kan-
sas against Douglasism, 115;
replies to Douglas at Cooper
Institute, 115, 116; exposes
futility of Popular Sovereignty
and Freeport Doctrine, 119;
defeats Douglas for presidency,
119, 120; the vote, 454; his hat
held by Douglas during deliv-
ery of inaugural address, 120.
Lincoln and Seward
Supported for presidency by
Seward, 125, 126; says Seward
deserves presidency, 126, 127;
calls Seward "generally recog-
nized leader," 127, 160; offers
Seward secretaryship of State,
127; defeats efforts of Seward
and Chase to exclude each
other, 129-131, 161, 162, 187,
194; suggests Seward as Minis-
ter to England, 130; persuades
Seward to enter cabinet, 131,
162; employs Seward before
inauguration, 132, 133; sub-
mits inaugural address to Sew-
ard, 134, 135; declares Sew-
ard shall not rule, 138, 139,
456; differs with Seward as to
Sumter, 140-144; directs Sew-
ard not to receive Confederate
commissioners, 143; orders
relief of Sumter, 144, 145; con-
sidered incapable by Seward,
131, 132, 136, 145, 147; "Some
Thoughts for the President's
consideration," 146, 147; re-
plies to the "Thoughts," 147,
148; accused by C. F. Ad-
ams of appropriating Seward's
honors, 149; mastery over
Seward, 150-153, 186, 460;
tones down Seward's despatch
to C. F. Adams, 151, 152;
consults Sumner on foreign
affairs, 152; displaces Seward
at Hampton Roads Conference,
153; appreciates Seward, 154,
186; contemplates Seward's
removal, 154; shields Seward,
154, 155, 188-194; cordial rela-
tions with Seward, 186; retains
Seward despite senatorial cau-
cus, 188-194; eulogized by
Seward, 424, 425.
Lincoln and Chase
Thinks Chase deserves presi-
dency, 126, 127, 160; owes
nomination to Chase's adher-
ents, 160, 463; sounds Chase on
secretaryship of Treasury, 160:
lists Chase for cabinet office,
128; defeats efforts of Chase
and Seward to exclude each
other, 129-131, 161, 162, 187,
194; appoints Chase to Treas-
ury, 161; entrusts finances
entirely to Chase, 168, 169;
orders more safeguards in Cur-
rency Bureau, 170-172; em-
ploys Chase in mihtary mat-
ters, 172, 173; letter from
Chase advising defence of Mary-
land, 174; disregards Chase's
mihtary opinions, 175; dis-
regards Chase's opposition to
McCleilan's reinstatement, 280,
281, 412; urged by Chase
to check waste, 178; ignores
Chase's defence of Hunter's
5.6
INDEX
proclamation, 179, 180; animus
of Chase against iiim, 182, 202-
204 ; underrated by Chase,
182-184; his levity displeases
Chase, 184-186; retains Sew-
ard despite Chase's support-
ers, 188-194; trouble about
collectorship at Hartford, 194-
196; friction with Chase about
patronage, 196, 197; revises
Chase's San Francisco appoint-
ments, 197; difference with
Chase about removal of Victor
Smith, 198-200, 465; persuades
Chase to withdraw resigna-
tion, 199, 200; difference with
Chase over Hiram Barney, 200-
202, 217; rivaled by Chase
for presidential nomination,
202-215, 466, 467; declines
Chase's resignation, 206, 207;
appreciates Chase, 208, 218,
219, 221; the "chin fly" story,
209; discusses with A. K.
McClure Chase's rivalry, 210,
211; Blairs assail Chase in his
behalf, 212-214; difference
with Chase about assistant trea-
surership, 215-220 ; accepts
Chase's resignation, 218, 219;
declines to let Chittenden act
as mediator, 219, 220; refuses
to reinstate Chase, 220; offers
to resign presidency, 220, 281;
appoints Chase Chief Justice,
221, 469; sworn into office by
Chase, 222.
Lincoln and Stanton
Ill-treated by Stanton in Mc-
Cormick case, 224, 225; criti-
cised by Stanton, 225-227;
appoints Stanton Secretary of
War, 227; confidence in Stan-
ton, 231, 232; revokes order
at Stanton's request, 470; seem-
ingly dominated by Stanton,
232-247; disclaims "influence
with this administration," 233,
254; allows Stanton discretion,
233, 234, 470; suggests min-
gling of eastern and western
troops, 235; interposes for Coles
County rioters, 236-238; orders
release of McKibbin, 239, 240;
declines to remove Canby , 241 ;
asks assent to discharge of pris-
oners, 242; promotes William-
son after Stanton's refusal,
242-244; transfers Hassler de-
spite Stanton's objections, 244,
245; handles disagreement be-
tween Stanton and Blair, 245,
246; revokes City Point instruc-
tions by Stanton's advice, 248;
overrules Stanton on recruit-
ing among Confederate prison-
ers, 249, 250; asks Stanton to
reduce New York quota, 251;
refuses to sign Stanley com-
mission, 251, 252; pardons im-
prisoned quartermaster despite
Stanton's objections, 253-255;
makes promise about capital
cases, 472; restores disgraced
lieutenant, 255, 256; reinstates
Andrews dismissed by Stanton,
256, 257; insists on justice for
private soldier, 257-260; se-
cures leniency for Baird, 260,
261 ; pardons draft rioters, 261,
262; insists oh Sabin's appoint-
ment, 262-264; promotes El-
hott despite Stanton's threat,
264^266; advances Rosecrans
against Stanton's wishes, 267;
consults about Hooker, 475;
advances Hooker despite Stan-
ton's opposition, 269, 270; fa-
vors overland campaign against
Richmond, 270, 271, 354-357;
adopts McClellan's plan con-
trary to Stanton's advice, 271,
272, 357, 362, 363; orders reten-
tion of McDowell's corps, 273;
orders Franklin to Peninsula,
275; attempts to handle armies,
400, 401 ; disregards Stanton's
opposition to McClellan, 280,
281, 412; offers to resign, 281 ;
declines to dismiss Blair at
Stanton's demand, 282, 283;
reprimands Stanton, 282, 283;
appreciates Stanton, 283-286;
protects Stanton, 284, 285, 388,
389; memorandum on note of
G. M. Hicks, 477; destroys
Stanton's resignation, 286; ap-
INDEX
517
predated by Stanton, 286-288;
his levity displeases Stanton,
185, 287, 478; reelection sup-
ported by Stanton, 287; his
southern trip worries Stanton,
287; on differences between
Stanton and McClellan, 388,
389; eulogized by Stanton,
288.
Lincoln and Fremont
Supports Fremont in 1856,
292; thinks of making Fremont
Minister to France, 292; ap-
points Fremont Major-General,
293; letter to Browning on
Fremont's emancipation pro-
clamation, 298, 299; asks Fre-
mont to modify proclamation,
299, 300; menaced by Mrs.
Fremont, 301, 302, 309, 479;
commands Fremont to modify
Eroclamation, 303; condemned
y Abohtionists, 303, 304, 313-
315; sends Meigs and Montgom-
ery Blair to Western Depart-
ment, 308; sends David Hunter
to help Fremont, 308, 309 ; sends
Cameron and Lorenzo Thomas
to Western Department, 310;
removes Fremont, 312, 313;
condemned for Fremont's re-
moval, 313-315, 316; consults
Bowen as to restoring Fremont,
315, 316; gives Fremont com-
mand of Mountain Department,
316; transfers Blenker's divi-
sion to Fremont, 372, 375; com-
plains of Fremont's disobedi-
ence, 317; assigns Fremont to
corps under Pope, 318; relieves
Fremont, 319, 320; his opinion
of Fremont, 320; answers pleas
for Fremont, 321-323; willing
Fremont should command ne-
gro troops, 322; on Fremont's
Abolitionism, 323; arraigned
by Fremont, 324-326; "Cave
of AduUam" comment, 325,
483.
Ldncoln and McClellan
Early acquaintance with Mc-
Clellan, 330; opposed by Mc-
Clellan in 1858, 113, 331; ap-
points McClellan Major-Gen-
eral U. S. A., 330, 484; assigns
McClellan to command Divi-
sion of Potomac, 328; defers
to McClellan, 334-336, 339,
340,351,372,485; underrated
by McClellan, 336-340, 347,
358, 363, 379; discourteously
treated by McClellan, 339, 340;
appoints McClellan General-in
Chief, 341 ; suggests an advance,
340, 342, 348; tells story of
exaggerator, 343, 344; protects
McClellan against clamor, 347,
348, 353, 387-389, 410, 411,
415; holds conferences during
McCleUan's illness, 349-351;
approves of McCleUan's reti-
cence, 351 ; annuls McCleUan's
action against Hutchinsons,
353; studies strategy, 354; dis-
approves of McCleUan's plan,
354; orders overland cam-
paign, 354, 355; his plan op-
posed by McCleUan, 270, 271,
355-357, 487; issues General
Order No. 1, 354; issues Special
Order No. 1, 354; orders opera-
tions against Harper's Ferry,
357, 358; indignant over fail-
ure there, 487; repeats charges
of treason, 359, 360; adopts
McCleUan's plan, 271, 272, 357;
issues General Order No. 2, 361,
362, 364; orders corps forma-
tion, 359, 360; appoints corps
commanders, 360, 361, 488;
issues General Order No. 3,
363, 364; orders Washington
left secure, 272, 273, 363; in-
dignant over fiasco at Manas-
sas, 369, 370; issues Special
Order No. 3, 370; deposes Mc-
Clellan from command in chief,
370; graceful letter from Mc-
Clellan, 370, 489; thanked by
McClellan in report, 491; de-
taches Blenker's division, 372,
375; retains McDowell's corps,
273, 374, 375; correspondence
over McDowell's retention, 375,
376; urges McClellan to attack,
377-379; dispute about numr
5i8
INDEX
berof troops, 378, 38&-391, 395,
396; orders Franklin to Penin-
sula, 275, 379; sends McCaU to
Peninsula, 390 ; sends McDowell
to aid McClellan, 383; recalls
McDowell, 384; answers Mc-
Clellan's complaints, 384-387;
warned of McCleUan's political
ambitions, 388, 392; on differ-
ences between McClellan and
Stanton, 388, 389; yearns for
McClellan's success, 391, 392;
thanks McClellan after Seven
Days' Retreat, 393; orders re-
enforcements to Peninsula, 394,
492; visits Harrison's Land-
ing, 395, 396; asks about ab-
sentees, 395, 396; the Harri-
son's Landing letter, 396-400;
sends Halleck to Harrison's
Landing, 401; recalls McClel-
lan from Peninsula, 402; seeks
McClellan's successor, 405, 406;
ignores McCleUan's appeals,
406, 407, 412; orders obedi-
ence to Halleck, 408; 409, 494;
has McClellan urge friends to
support Pope, 409, 410; blames
McClellan for Pope's defeat,
279, 409, 413; restores McClel-
lan to command, 279-281, 411-
413; disappointed at Lee's es-
cape after Antietam, 414, 415;
visits McClellan's camp, 416,
417; calls army "McClellan's
body-guard," 417; orders Mc-
Clellan to advance, 417; on
Stuart's raids, 418; urges Mc-
Clellan to press Lee, 418-420;
story suggested by McClellan's
tardiness, 421; removes Mc-
Clellan, 422; canvass of 1864,
423, 424; defeats McCleUan,
424, 496.
Lincolii, Abraham, grandfather
of the President: killed by
Indians, 13; genealogy, 440.
Lincoln, Mrs. Abraham, reports
talk of Seward as power be-
hind the throne, 138. See also
Todd, Mary.
Lincoln, Mordecai, Indian hunter,
13; genealogy, 440.
Lincoln, Thomas, lack of success,
1; considers Abraham lazy, 6;
hard taskmaster, 8, 440, 441;
dangerous antagonist, 12, 13;
marries Sarah Bush Jolmston,
440; allows Abraham to study,
439, 440; last home in Illinois,
19; genealogy, 440.
Lincoln, Mrs. Thomas, marriage,
440; on Abraham's youth-
ful speeches, 5; confidence in
Abraham, 6; induces husband
to sanction Abraham's studies,
439, 440.
Linder, Usher F., defended by
Lincoln from hostile audience,
57; chats with Lincoln about
Shields affair, 73.
" Little Giant," The. See Douglas,
Stephen A.
Logan, Stephen T., explains Lin-
coln's large vote, 47; in " great
debate" of 1840, 80, 81.
" Long Nine," The, appoint Lin-
coln leader, 58; campaign to
make Springfield Capital, 58-
61; defended by Lincoln, 61,
62; the members, 447.
Longstreet, James, ordered to
use "Quaker guns," 488,
489.
Loomis, Dwight, recommends
Goodman for collectorship at
Hartford, 195.
Louis XVI, recalls Necker, 221,
468.
Lovejoy, Owen, meets Douglas
on the stump, 90; suggests
mingling eastern and western
troops, 234, 235.
Low, Frederick F., ignored as to
San Francisco appointments,
197.
Lowell, James Russell, on McClel-
lan, 346.
Lyon, Nathaniel, defeated at Wil-
son's Creek, 304, 305.
McCall, George A., favors Chesa-
peake route to Richmond, 362,
475, 488; division retained to
protect Washington, 273; divi-
sion asked for by McClellan,
274; conditionally promised
to McClellan, 275; sent to Mc-
INDEX
519
Clellan, 390; division asked
for by McDowell, 384, 491.
McClellan, George B., early ca-
reer, 329, 330, 484; in Mexican
War, 329; writings, 329, 484;
early acquaintance with Lin-
coln, 330; supports Douglas
against Lincoln, 113. 331; com-
mands Department of Ohio,
327, 330; victories in western
Virginia, 327, 328; appointed
Major-General U. S. A., 330,
484; summoned to Washing-
ton, 328; compared to Napo-
leon, 328, 332; appearance,
331, 332; character and ability,
332, 333; egotism, 333-340;
deferred to by Lincoln, 334-
336, 339, 340, 351, 372, 485;
deferred to by Winfield Scott,
334; honored in the Senate,
334; letters and despatches to
Mrs. McClellan, 334-338, 367,
375, 378, 380, 381, 399, 401,
404, 408, 413, 414, 416, 420; un-
derrates Lincoln, 336-340, 347,
358, 363, 379 ; irritated at Win-
field Scott, 336, 337, 341; ani-
mus against the government,
276, 336-338, 341, 367, 375,
378, 380-382, 384-387, 391,
392, 399, 400, 404, 405, 410,
413; discourtesy toward Lin-
cohi, 339, 340; causes Winfield
Scott's retirement, 341; ap-
pointed General-in-Chief, 341;
compared to Turenne, 342;
contrasted with Tamerlane and
Bonaparte, 342; has new plan
of campaign, 342; overrates
Confederates, 337, 342-344,
368,369, 377, 378, 384, 385.
401, 402, 414, 421, 495; asks
for more troops, 343, 379, 382-
385, 390, 391, 393, 394, 396,
402, 416 ; disregards popu-
lar will, 344, 347, 348; sug-
gests vigorous operations, 345;
arouses hostihty, 345-348, 353,
362, 363, 367, 387-389, 392,
400,410,411,415; opposes in-
terference with slavery, 346,
398; suggests compensated
emancipation, 398; consults
Stanton, 469; ill with typhoid
fever, 348; informed of Lin-
coln's conference with others,
349; interrogated by Chase,
173, 350; protests against stat-
ing plans before Lincoln's
advisers, 350, 351 ; revokes
Hutchinson pass, 353; plans
campaign via Chesapeake Bay,
354; operations against Har-
per's Ferry, 357-359, 487; ex-
plains their failure, 359, 361,
487; charged with disloyalty,
359, 360, 367, 409, 410; op-
poses overland campaign, 270,
271, 355-357, 487; submits
plans to division commanders,
271, 272, 360-362; his plan
adopted by Lincoln, 271, 272,
357; command restricted to
Army of Potomac, 272; re-
quires control of appointments,
360, 361; gains approval of
Chesapeake plan, 362, 363;
loses support of Stanton and
others, 362, 387, 388; asks sus-
pension of army corps order,
364—366; advances upon Cen-
treville and Manassas, 366,
367; "Quaker guns" episode,
368, 369, 488, 489; deposed
from command in chief, 370;
graceful letter to Lincoln, 370,
489; thanks Lincoln in report,
491; supporters in War De-
partment, 473; plan to have
Fremont supersede, 482; sub-
mits Peninsula plan to corps
commanders, 272, 370, 371 ; de-
prived of Blenker's division,
372, 375; forbids detaching of
troops, 372, 489; ordered to
leave Washington secure, 272,
273, 363, 371 ; leaves Washing-
ton insecure, 273, 373-376,
388; loses McDowell's corps,
273, 274, 374, 375, 491; corre-
spondence over McDowell's
retention, 375, 376; besieges
Yorktown, 377-380; urged to
attack, 377-379; pleads for
Franklin's and McCall's di-
visions, 274, 390; receives
Franklin's division, 275, 379,
520
INDEX
390; receives McCall's divi-
sion, 390; disputes about num-
ber of troops, 378, 389-391,
395, 396; insists on absolute
authority over McDowell, 383,
384; his harsh despatch after
Games's Mill, 276, 385, 386;
harsh despatch mutilated, 276,
277, 386, 476; advancement
opposed by Stanton, 266; re-
moval urged by Stanton, 277,
278, and others, 392; removal
urged by Chase, 175, 277; sup-
ported by Seward, 187; could
not maneuver 100,000 men,
391; thanked by President
after Seven Days' Retreat,
393 ; visited by Lincoln at
Harrison's Landing, 395, 396;
wishes to recall absentees, 492;
the Harrison's Landing letter,
396-400; recall favored by
Halleck, 277, 402; ordered
back from Peninsula, 402 ;
defends celerity of movements,
402-405; ordered to reenforce
Pope, 402-404; animus against
Pope, 404, 408; promised en-
larged command, 405, 406;
wants position defined, 406;
stripped of entire army, 406-
408, 493; asks to go on battle-
field, 407; questions Halleck's
orders, 408, 409; blamed for
Pope's defeat, 409, 410, 413;
urges friends to support Pope,
409, 410; proposed cabinet
protest against, 278; protest
withheld, 278, 279; summoned
to HaUeck's aid, 279, 409, 411,
494; guiltless of disloyalty,
410; beloved by troops, 411;
opposition to his reinstate-
ment, 180; restored to com-
mand, 279-281, 411-413; opens
Antietam campaign, 281, 413,
414; victorious at South Moun-
tain and Antietam, 414, 495
lets Lee escape, 414, 415
defends his course, 415, 416
desires removal of Stanton
and Halleck, 416; ordered to
advance, 417; hvuniliated by
Stuart's raids, 417, 418; urged
to press Lee, 418-420; disputes
about supplies, 420; advances
against Lee, 421; loses inside
track to Richmond, 422; re-
moved from command, 422,
495; nominated for presidency,
423; canvass of 1864, 423, 424;
defeated at polls, 424.
McClellan, Mrs. George B., in-
credulous about McClellan's
appointment, 484; letters and
despatches from McClellan,
334-338, 367, 375, 378, 380,
381, 399, 401, 404, 408, 413,
414, 416, 420.
McClure, Alexander K., discusses
Chase's rivalry with Lincoln,
210, 211, 215; secures McKib-
bin as commissioner for sol-
diers' votes, 238, 239; has Mc-
Kibbin released from arrest,
239, 240.
McCormick, Andrew, one of the
" Long Nine," 447.
McCormick Reaper Case, 224,
225.
McDowell, Irvin, defeated at
First Bull Run, 328; consulted
by Lincoln during McClellan's
illness, 349, 350; favors over-
land route to Richmond, 349,
475, 488; appointed corps
commander, 361 , 362; approves
plan for Peninsular Campaign,
272, 370, 371; estimates on
defence of Washington, 371,
475, 489; retained to protect
Washington, 273, 375, 376;
advances to aid McCleUan, 383;
asks McClellan for McCaU's
division, 384, 491; recalled to
defend Washington, 173, 384,
390; in Shenandoah campaign,
316, 317, 390; assigned to
corps under Pope, 318, 319,
493.
McHenry, Fort, threatened, 174.
Mcllvaine, Charles P., receives
letter from Chase, 488.
McKibbin, Jere, commissioner
for soldiers' votes, 238, 239;
arrested by Stanton, 239;
released by Lincoln, 239,
240.
INDEX
521
McKinstry, Justiis, condemned by
Washburne, 481.
McLean, John, receives votes for
presidential nomination in
1860, 454.
McVeigh, Wayne, receives letter
from Chase criticising adminis-
tration, 181.
Madison, James, appoints Mon-
roe Secretary of State, 455.
Magruder, John B., defends York-
town, 377, 378, 391, 476; com-
ments on McClellan, 377.
Malvern HUl, Battle of, 391, 474.
Mansfield, Edwin D., receives
letter from Chase criticising
administration, 174, 175, 178,
464.
Marcy, Randolph B., explores
Upper Red River country, 329;
incredulous about McClellan's
appointment, 484 ; interview
with Lincoln about Harper's
Ferry, 487; informs McClellan
of government's kindly feel-
ing, 492.
Marcy, William L., appointed
Secretary of State, 455; op-
posed for presidential nomina-
tion by Douglas, 86.
Markland, Absalom H., carries
Blair's letter of complaint
against Stanton, 246.
Martimprey, Edouard C, tells
anecdote of P^lissier, 490.
Maryland, threatened secession
of, 174; attempts to keep in
Union, 296; in Mountain De-
partment, 316; invaded by
Lee, 413; Lee driven back
from, 414; Stuart's raid across,
418.
Mason, James M., defeated by
Seward, 141.
Matteson, Joel A., supported by
Douglas Democrats for Senate,
90; defeated by Lincoln's ef-
forts, 90, 450.
Maximilian, Emperor, 459.
Meade, George G., considered for
command of Army of Potomac,
269.
Mechanicsbm-g, 111., scene of elec-
tion fight, 50.
Medill, Joseph, gains Ohio men
for Lincoln at Chicago Con-
vention, 463.
Meigs, Montgomery C, consulted
by Lincoln during McClellan's
illness, 349, 350; favors Presi-
dent's plan, 349; sent to
straighten out Western Depart-
ment, 308; advises against
sending Franklin to Peninsula,
275; consulted on Hooker's ap-
pointment to command, 475;
skilfully estimates Confederate
forces, 493.
Merryman, E. H., Lincoln's sec-
ond in Shields affair, 70, 71;
receives quasi-challenge from
Whiteside, 72.
Mexican War, 329.
Mexico, Ninian Edwards ap-
pointed Minister to, 468; Eu-
ropean intervention in, 147,
177, 459; Maximihan on the
throne of, 459; F. P. Blair, Sr.,
suggests Mexican crusade, 460.
Mississippi River, Lincoln boat-
man on, 18, 19, 442; key to
the war, 478.
Missouri, partly committed to
secession, 293; factional quar-
rels in, 293-296, 467; in West-
em Department, 293 ; Fr^
mont's proclamation disturbs,
297-304; kept in Union with
aid of F. P. Blair, Jr., 307;
Fremont meetings in, 315; in
Department of Ohio, 484.
Missouri Compromise, The, de-
clared by Douglas "sacred,"
86; violated by Douglas, 86,
87.
Mitchel, Ormsby M., awaits Mc-
Clellan for conference, 340.
MobUe Bay, Battle of, 424.
Monroe Doctrine, The, 146, 147,
460.
Monroe, Fortress, conference at,
28, 29, 153; operations at and
around, 272, 356, 371, 373;
withdrawn from McClellan's
command, 375, 378.
Monroe, James, appointed Secre-
tary of State, 455; influenced
by J. Q. Adams, 461; rivaled
522
INDEX
by W. H. Crawford, 466; ap-
points Ninian Edwards to
Mexican mission, 468.
Moore, "William G., carries Stan-
ley's commission to Lincoln,
251, 252.
Morehead, C. S., his interview
with Seward, 458.
Morgan, Edwin D., on committee
that notifies Lincoln of first
nomination, 29; comparing
height with Lincoln, 29, 30;
opposes appointment of Field
as Assistant Treasurer, 216,
217 219.
Morris, William W., 256.
Mulligan, James A., surrenders
at Lexington, 305.
Naglee, Henry M., favors Chesa-
peake route to Richmond, 362,
475, 488.
Napier, Charles J., holds troops
by victories, 411.
Napoleon HI, his controversy
with Pelissier, 490.
Nasby, Petroleuta V., read by
Lincoln, 478.
Necker, Jacques, Chase compared
to, 168, 468; recalled by Louis
XVI, 221, 468.
Needham, Daniel, defeated by
Lincoln in wrestling match, 19.
Negro Troops. See Slavery.
Nelson, Samuel, at interviews
with Seward, 458.
New Mexico, in Western Depart-
ment, 293.
New Orleans, La., Lincoln's voy-
ages to, 18, 19, 442.
New Salem, 111., Lincoln's early
manhood in, 11,441; Lincoln
clerk at, 19; his life there, 20-
26, 34; Lincoln postmaster at,
445.
New York, Lincoln's Cooper In-
stitute speech at, 115, 116;
trouble over collector ship at,
200-202.
New York, State of, seeks McClel-
lan's services, 330.
Newton, John, reported by Burn-
side for discipline, 474.
Nicollet, Jean N., 290.
Norfolk, Va., Lincoln's campaign
against, 173.
North CaroUna, militarv govern-
orship of, 251, 252, 322, 323.
Oakley, Lewis W., hisses the
Hutchinsons, 352.
Odell, Moses F., member of Com-
mittee on Conduct of War, 486.
Offutt, Denton, hires Lincoln as
clerk, 19; matches Lincoln
against Armstrong, 20, 21;
business ruined, 445.
Ohio, pro-slavery prejudices in
southern, 158; in Mountain
Department, 316; in Depart-
ment of Ohio, 484.
Ohio and Mississippi Railroad,
330.
Ottawa, 111., scene of first Lin-
coln-Douglas debate, 104, 452.
Palmerston, Lord, on rival in his
cabinet, 203.
Pappsville, 111., scene of election
melee, 50.
Parker, Theodore, advises against
supporting Douglas, 451.
" Pathfinder," The. See Fremont,
John C.
Pelissier, Jean J. A., insubordina-
tion of, in Crimean War, 490.
Peninsular Campaign, 270-278,
376-405.
Pennsylvania, seeks McClellan's
services, 330; Stuart's raid
across, 418; in Department of
Ohio, 484.
Peoria, 111., Lincoln and Douglas
share platform at, 89.
Perryville, Battle of, 267.
Petersbiurg, Va., Lincoln visits,
287.
Phelps, Timothy G., ignored as
to San Francisco appointments,
197.
Philippi, Battle of, 327.
Phillips, Wendell, attitude in 1858
towards Lincoln, 94; contrasts
Lincoln and Fremont, 303;
calls Fremont the " statesman-
soldier," 313; urges Fremont's
appointment to Stanley's place,
322, 323.
INDEX
5^3
Piatt, Donn, asks Stanton what
he will do in cabinet, 227, 470.
Pickens, Fort, reenforcement of,
144, 458.
Pickering, Timothy, drafts cabi-
net remonstrance against Knox,
476.
Pierce, Franklin, nominated for
presidency, 85, 86; appoints
W. L. Marcy Secretary of State,
455.
Pigeon Creek,'Ind., Lincoln family
migrates to, 2, 3, 439, 440; fron-
tier conditions on, 3, 7, 8, 11.
Pitt, William, the Elder, Seward
compared to, 133; philippic
against Walpole, 446.
Plimiley, B. Rush, defends Fre-
mont, 481.
Polk, James K., appoints Buch-
anan Secretary of State, 455;
remits penalty of Fremont
court-martial, 291.
Pomeroy, Samuel C, on commit-
tee that asks Lincoln to recon-
struct cabinet, 189; heads
movement for nomination of
Chase, 206; his circular, 206,
207, 212, 213.
Pope, John, receives letter from
Chase on emancipation, 180;
recommended to succeed Mc-
Clellan, 277, 405; appointed
to command Army of Virginia,
318, 415, 493; tactless address
to troops, 408, 494; awaits re-
enforcements from McClellan,
403, 404, 406; defeated at
Second Bull Run, 278, 279, 409;
holds McClellan responsible,
409, 410; his defeat blamed by
Lincohi on McClellan, 279, 409,
413.
Popular Sovereignty, doctrine in-
troduced by Douglas, 92;
inconsistent with Dred Scott
Decision, 92, 108, 109, 117,
118; theme of Lincoln's Cooper
Institute speech, 116; exposed
as futile, 119.
Porter, Andrew, favors Chesa-
peake route to Richmond, 362,
475, 488.
Porter, Fitz-John, favors Chesa-
peake route to Richmond, 362,
475, 488; appointed corps com-
mander, 488; guiltless of dis-
loyalty at Second Bull Run,
410; at Antietam, 415.
Price, Sterling, takes Lexington,
305.
Princeton, 111., Douglas encoun-
ters Owen Lovejoy at, 90.
Pryor, Roger A., at consultation
of Southerners, 458.
Puget Sovmd, Wash,, trouble over
collectorsliip at, 198-200.
Quincy, 111., scene of a Lincoln-
Douglas debate, 103, 452.
Rajrmond, Henry J., hears the
"chin fly" story, 209.
Reed, John M., receives votes
for presidential nomination in
1860, 454.
Reid, Whitelaw, 478.
Republican Party, organizes, 122,
159; component parties, 454;
some leaders favor Douglas,
93-95, 114, 115, 450, 451; Illi-
nois convention names Lin-
coln for U. S. Senate, 94; elects
Illinois State ticket in 1858,
113; National Convention of
1860, 116, 121-126, 157, 160;
first national campaign, 289,
292; advent to power, 141;
quarrel over New York Custom
House, 200-202; Radicals fa-
vor nomination of Chase, 205,
206; factional differences, 298,
303, 304, 467; grievances of
Missouri Radicals, 467; Na-
tional Union Convention, 215,
324; renominates Lincoln, 215,
325, 423; convention suggests
harmony in cabinet, 282, 477,
483; canvass of 1864, 423, 424.
Reynolds, John, calls for volun-
teers in Black Hawk War, 34;
pursues Indians, 40; app>eals
to disbanded troops for fur-
ther service, 43, 44.
Reynolds, Thomas C, tries to se-
cure secession of Missouri, 293.
Rice, Elliott W., made brigadier-
general, 264-266.
524
INDEX
Rich Mountain, Battle of, 327.
Richardson, William A., defeated
for governorship of Illinois,
91, 92, 450.
Richardsons, The, their buildings,
carried by Lincoln, 10, 11.
RicheUeu, Cardinal, Stanton com-
pared to, 266.
Richmond, Va., cry of "On to
Richmond" in disfavor, 340;
Confederates willing to ex-
change city for Washington,
374, 490; advance against, 271,
331, 354-357, 371, see also Pe-
ninsular Campaign; covered by
Lee after Antietam, 422; Lin-
coln visits, 247, 287; Virginia
legislature to reassemble in , 247,
248.
Ripley, James W., advises against
sending Franklin^ to Peninsula,
275.
Rives, William C, interview with
Seward, 458.
Robinson, William S., defends
Fremont, 313, 481.
Roman, Andre B., Confederate
commissioner, 143, 458.
Romine, John, considers Lin-
coln lazy, 6.
Rosecrans, William S., his ad-
vancement opposed by Stan-
ton, 266, 267; succeeds Buell,
267; disaster at Chickamauga,
173.
Russell, Earl, testifies to Seward's
ability, 154.
Russia, attitude toward Ameri-
can affairs, 146, 459.
Sabin, John A., appointed pay-
master, 262-264, 473, 474.
St. Clair, Arthur, Washington's
rage against, 370.
St. Louis, Mo., headquarters of
Western Department, 296;
anti-slavery mass meeting at,
321.
San Francisco, Cal., changes in
Treasury offices at, 197.
Sanders, John, 329.
Sanford, Edward S., strikes harsh
words from McClellan's de-
spatch, 276, 277, 386.
Santo Domingo, European inter-
vention in, 177; Spain in, 459.
Sargent, Aaron A., ignored as to
San Francisco appointments,
197.
Schiurz, Carl, on committee that
notifies Lincoln of first nomina-
tion, 29.
Scott, Thomas A., consulted by
Lincoln during McClellan's ill-
ness, 349, 350; favors Presi-
dent's plan, 349.
Scott, Winfield, in Black Hawk
War, 445; favorably notices
McClellan in Mexican War, 329;
advises evacuation of Sumter,
139; report referred back, 142;
reaffirms opinion, 142, 143; con-
sults Stanton, 469 ; praises Mc-
Clellan, 328; defers to McClel-
lan, 334; irritates McClellan,
336, 337; blamed for delays,
337, 341; resigns command,
337,341.
Sebastopol, McClellan at, 490.
Seven Days' Retreat, The, 384-
387.
Seward, William H., his career,
121, 122; character and talents,
122-124, 136, 154; admires
John Quincy Adams, 123; as-
sociation with Thurlow Weed,
123; "irrepressible conflict"
and "higher law" speeches,
124; indulgence towards Cath-
olics, 124; opposition to Know-
Nothings, 124; attitude in
1858 towards Lincoln, 94; op-
poses Douglas in Senate, 98;
anti-slavery champion, 159;
candidate for presidential nom-
ination in 1860, 116, 121, 124,
125, 157; disappointment over
defeat in convention, 125, 454,
455; supports Lincoln, 125,
126; deserves presidency, in
Lincoln's opinion, 126, 127,
160; accepts State portfolio,
127, 160, 161; objects to some
of Lincoln's cabinet selections,
128, 129; tries to exclude
Chase, 129-131, 161, 187, 194;
appointment to cabinet op-
posed by Chase, 129, 187; sug-
INDEX
525
gested by Lincoln as minister
to England, 130; confers se-
cretly with Stanton, 223; with-
draws acceptance of State port-
folio, 130, 131, 134; becomes
Secretary of State, 131 ; guides
Taylor's administration, 132;
expects to dominate Lincoln,
132, 135-139, 145, 147, 456;
man of the hour, 132, 133; com-
pared to Pitt the Elder, 133;
letters to his wife, 133, 134,
148; believes himself saviour of
country, 133, 134; suggests
changes in Lincoln's inaugural
address, 135, 141, 142, 151,
152; believed to be paramount,
136-139, 143, 145, 148-150,
161, 188; prevents regular cab-
inet meetings, 137, 176, 177;
advises against employment
of force, 141, 142, 457, 458; op-
poses reenforcement of Sumter;
142-144, 146; directed not to
receive Confederate commis-
sioners, 143; promises evacua-
tion of Sumter, 144, 145, 458;
informed of orders to relieve
Sumter, 459; accused of du-
plicity, 145; presents "Some
Thoughts for the President's
Consideration," 146, 147, 397,
398; plan for foreign war^,
146, 147, 460; urges Stanton's
appointment, 227; discourte-
ously treated by McClellan,
339, 340; consulted by Lincoln
during McClellan's iUness, 349,
350; favors President's plan,
349; approves of McClellan's
deposition from command in
chief, 489; cordial relations
with Lincoln, 186; rivalry with
Chase, 186, 187; Chase com-
plains of him to Weed, 187,
188; dismissal demanded by
Senators, 155, 188-194; resigns
from cabinet, 189; withdraws
resignation, 192; concedes Lin-
coln's ability, 148; eulogized
at Lincoln's expense by C.
F. Adams, 149; his eulogy
on Jolin Quincy Adams, 461;
recognizes Lincoln's mastery,
150, 151, 173; to control for-
eign affairs, 151, 177; despatch
to C. F. Adams toned down,
151, 152; vexed when Lincoln
consults Sumner, 152; angry
outbursts, 461; joined by Lin-
coln at Hampton Roads Con-
ference, 29, 153 ; brilliant
services, 154; removal contem-
plated, 154; shielded by Lin-
coln, 154, 155; denounced by
Sumner, 462; devotion to Lin-
coln, 155, 156; his tribute to
Lincoln, 424, 425; attempt to
assassinate, 156; epitaph, 156,
462.
Sheridan, Philip H., victory in
Shenandoah valley, 424; de-
scribed by Lincoln, 443.
Sherman, John, measures height
with Lincoln, 30; receives let-
ter from Chase criticising ad-
ministration, 176, 177.
Sherman, Thomas W., 489.
Sherman, William T., would have
won Peninsular Campaign, 391 ;
at Atlanta, 424.
Shields, James, Illinois State
Auditor, 65; lampooned by
Lincoln, 66, 67; lampooned by
Mary Todd and Julia M. Jayne,
67, 68, 83; correspondence
with Lincoln, 69-71; arranges
duel with Lincoln, 71; quarrel
amicably settled, 71, 72; chal-
lenges Butler, 72; ridiculed by
Lincoln's biographers, 75-77;
seeks reelection to U. S. Sen-
ate, 87; fails of reelection, 90-
92.
Simpson, Matthew, suggests Stan-
ton for chief justiceship, 285.
Slavery, negro suffrage in Conven-
tion of 1821, 82; pro-slavery
prejudices of southern Ohio,
158; Chase joins Abolitionists,
158; indictment of Bimey,
158; neither Whigs nor Demo-
crats prepared for anti-slavery,
158; Liberty-men and Free-
soilers favor anti-slavery, 158;
restriction in Missouri Cwnpro-
mise to be void, 87; Lincoln's
knowledge of, 89; struggle over
^26
INDEX
admission of Kansas with pro-
slavery constitution, 91-94;
Democratic Party committing
itself to, 92; inconsistent atti-
tude of Douglas toward, 92,
108, 109, 117, 118; indiffer-
ence of Douglas to, 93; con-
stitutional, 103; ought to be
restricted, 104; abolition tor-
nado in 1846, 105; Douglas
and Lincoln ask questions on,
108, 109; its status in Territo-
ries, 108, 452, 453; in Republi-
can platform of 1856, 292; di-
vides Democratic Convention
of 1860, 116-118; extension
of, opposed by Seward, 122;
Seward advises dropping negro
question, 141; trouble in camp
over Whittier's hymn, 352,
353 ; causes trouble in Mis-
souri, 293-296; Lincoln's Bor-
der State policy, 296, 298,
300; Abolitionists' clamor, 297;
Fremont's emancipation pro-
clamation, 297-304; Act of
August 6, 1861, 300, 478; Lin-
coln's attitude toward, con-
demned, 303, 304, 313-315;
negro troops to be organized
by Fremont, 322; interference
with, opposed by McClellan,
346, 398; compensated eman-
cipation suggested by McClel-
lan, 398; enlistment of slaves,
179; Hunter's emancipation
proclamation, 179 ; Butler
advised to free slaves within
his lines, 180; Pope receives
similar suggestion, 180; Lin-
coln determines upon emanci-
pation, 400; Emancipation Pro-
clamation before the cabinet,
185; subordinated to preser-
vation of Union, 205. See
also Abolitionists, and Border
States.
Smith, Caleb B., on committee
that notifies Lincoln of first
nomination, 29; listed for cabi-
net office, 128; doubt about
appointment, 455 ; advises
against provisioning Sumter,
143; favors evacuation of Sum-
ter, 144; signs protest against
McClellan, 278.
Smith, Jacob, in practical joke at
Lincoln-Shields duel, 71, 72.
Smith, Capt. John, McClellan com-
pared to, 333.
Smith, Persifor F., 329.
Smith, Richard, writes to Chase
on Fremont's removal, 314,
315.
Smith, Victor, removed from col-
lectorship at Puget Sound, 198,
199.
Smith, William F., favors Chesa-
peake route to Richmond, 362,
475, 488; reported by Burn-
side for discipline, 474.
South Carolina, Jackson puts
down sedition in, 140; besieges
Sumter, 139.
South Mountain, Battle of, 414.
Spain, interferes in American af-
fairs, 146, 459.
Speed, Joshua F., on Lincoln's
reply to Forquer, 51; hears
about Radford affair, 58; let-
ter from Lincoln on duels, 72;
his store meeting-place for
politicians, 80; present when
draft rioters are pardoned, 261,
262.
Spinner, Francis E., danger of
having signature duplicated,
170, 171.
Spottsylvania Court House, Battle
of, 176.
Sprague, Kate Chase, 468.
Sprague, WilUam, on commission
to consider safeguards for Cur-
rency Bureau, 171; letter from
Chase on presidency, 204.
Springfield, 111., Lincoln moves
to, 49, 64, 80; campaign to
establish Capital at, 58-61;
Douglas begins career at, 80;
Lincoln answers Douglas in
1852 at, 85; Douglas speaks
in 1854 at, 87, 88; Lincoln
answers at, 88 ; Dred Scott Deci-
sion discussed at, 91, 92; Con-
vention names Lincoln for U. S.
Senate at, 94; Lincoln and
Douglas speak in 1858 at, 96.
Stael. Madame de, 468.
INDEX
527
Stanley, Edward, misunderstand-
ing about commission, 251,
252; removal of, requested,
322, 323.
Stanton, Edwin M., ill-treats
Lincoln in McCormick case,
224, 225; opposes secessionists
in Buchanan's cabinet, 223,
229; confers secretly with Re-
publican leaders, 223; his de-
mocracy, 223, 227, 469, 470;
career, 223, 469; consulted
by Scott, McClellan, and Dix,
469; informs McClellan of Lin-
coln's conferences with others,
349; harsh criticisms of Lin-
cohi, 225-227; letter to DLx,
225; appointed Secretary of
War, 227; character, 228-231;
compared to Gladstone, 230;
Lincohi's faith in, 231, 232;
has Lincoln's erroneous order
revoked, 470; seems to domi-
nate Lincoln, 232-247; allowed
discretion, 233, 234; scolded
by Chase for extravagance,
177, 178; refuses Pay ton more
time to fill quota, 470; inter-
views with Love joy and Julian,
234-236; severity against Coles
County rioters, 237, 238; ar-
rests McKibbin, 239, 240; ob-
jects to removal of Canby, 241 ;
assents to discharge of prison-
ers, 242; refuses to promote
Williamson, 243; denounced
by Kasson in Congress, 244;
refuses transfer of Hassler, 244,
245; disagreement with Mont-
gomery Blair, 245, 246; op-
poses reassembling of Virginia
legislature, 248; objects to re-
cruiting among Confederate
prisoners, 249, 250; reduces
New York quota, 251 ; diffi-
culty with Stanley's commis-
sion, 251, 252; objects to
pardon of imprisoned quarter-
master, 254; protests against
reprieve, 472, 473; refuses to
reinstate disgraced lieutenant,
255; dismisses Andrews, 256,
257; poUtical tolerance, 473;
restores private soldier, 257-
260; permits Baird to reenlist,
261; threatens resignation if
draft rioters are pardoned, 261,
262; appoints Sabin under
compulsion, 263, 264; nervous
as to paymasters, 473 ; threat-
ens resignation if Elliott is
promoted, 264-266; compared
to Richelieu, 266; opposes ad-
vancement of Rosecrans, 266,
267; opposes advancement of
Hooker, 266, 269, 270; favors
advancement of G. H. Thomas,
266, 267, 474; advocates over-
land campaign against Rich-
mond, 271, 272, 357, 362, 363;
opposes McClellan 's plan, 271,
272, 357, 362, 363; complains
of Lincoln to Committee on
the War, 272; opposes ad-
vancement of McClellan, 266;
indignant over fiasco at Har-
per's Ferry, 487; loses confi-
dence in McClellan, 362; sus-
pends order for corps forma-
tion, 365, 366; orders McClel-
lan to act without delay, 371;
approves of McClellan's de-
position from conamand in
chief, 489; retains McDowell's
corps, 273; opposes sending
Franklin to Peninsula, 275 ; re-
ceives McClellan's complaints,
378,383-386; accused of sacri-
ficing army, 276, 385, 386; dif-
ferences with McClellan as to
troops, 388, 389; blamed for
McClellan's failure, 391; letter
to Dyer, 486; attempts to
handle armies, 400, 401; an-
swers Fremont's objections to
serving under Pope, 319, 320;
urges McClellan's removal, 277,
278, 410; old quarrel with
Halleck, 277; prepares pro-
test against McClellan, 278
disliked by McClellan, 404
complains of McClellan, 409
arranges flight after Second
Bull Run, 279; opposes McClel-
lan's reinstatement, 280, 281,
412; supports McClellan in An-
tietam campaign, 415; his
removal desired by McClellan,
528
INDEX
416; on cabinet reconstruction,
191; demands Blair's dismissal,
282; reprimanded by Lincoln,
282, 283; appreciated by Lin-
coln, 283-286, 477; protected
by Lincoln, 284, 388, 389; at-
tacked by Hicks, 477; efforts
to secure his dismissal, 284,
285; urged for chief justiceship,
285; condition alarms Surgeon-
General, 285; letter to Chase
about health, 285; resigns, 285,
286; resignation destroyed,
286; displeased at Lincoln's
levity, 185, 287, 478; appre-
ciates Lincoln, 286-288; sup-
ports Lincoln's reelection, 287;
anxious for Lincoln's safety,
287; eulogy of Lincoln, 288.
Stature, Lincoln's, as a boy, 8;
Lincoln attains full height, 9;
" Why, I could lick salt off the
top of your hat," 28; Stephen
A. Douglas's size, 28; Alexan-
der H. Stephens's size, 28, 29;
"The largest shucking for so
small a nubbin that I ever saw,
29; Lincoln's hobby for mea-
suring, 29-32, 443, 444; Edwin
D. Morgan's height, 29, 30;
John Sherman measures height
with Lincoln, 30; Charles Sum-
ner declines to measure, 31, 32,
443; size and vigor of Wash-
ington, Jackson, and Lincoln,
32,33; Lincoln tallest of Presi-
dents, 33; 0. M. Hatch mea-
sures height with Lincoln, 443,
444; Lincoln comments on tall
visitors, 443; Lincoln's de-
scriptions of Ellsworth and
Sheridan, 443.
Steele, William G., investigates
Western Department, 480.
Stephens, Alexander H., commis-
sioner at Hampton Roads Con-
ference, 28, 29, 153, 462; Lin-
coln's comment on, 28, 29;
proposes Mexican crusade,
460.
Stevens, Thaddeus, signs Lincoln's
name to reprieve, 472, 473.
Stockton, Robert F., conflict of
authority with Kearney, 291.
Stone, Daniel, one of the "Long
Nine," 447.
Stuart, James E. B., makes raids
around McCleUan's army, 417,
418.
Stuart, John T., takes Lincoln into
partnership, 64; elected to le-
gislature with Lincoln, 445,
446.
Sturgis, Samuel D., assigned to
a command under Pope, 493;
reported by Burnside for disci-
pline, 474.
Sumner, Charles, opposes Doug-
las in Senate, 98; anti-slavery
champion, 159; attitude in
1858 towards Lincoln, 94; re-
ceives votes for presidential
nomination in 1860, 454; con-
fers secretly with Stanton, 223;
declines to measure height with
Lincoln, 31, 32; consulted on
foreign affairs by Lincoln, 152;
denounces Seward, 462; on
committee that asks Lincoln to
reconstruct cabinet, 189; in-
troduces delegation that asks
command of negro troops for
Fremont, 322; letter from Lin-
coln on Fremont's restoration,
322; suggests that Chase may
be recalled to cabinet, 221;
receives promise of chief jus-
ticeship for Chase, 469.
Stunner, Edwin V., favors over-
land route to Richmond, 475,
488; approves plan for Pe-
ninsular Campaign, 272, 370,
371; estimates on defence of
Washington, 371, 475, 489;
appointed corps commander,
361, 362; commands McClel-
lan's last squadron, 493.
Stunter, Fort, besieged by South
Carolina troops, 139; evacua-
tion advised, 139, 140, 146; re-
lief of, studied by Lincoln, 142-
144, 458; evacuation promised
by Seward, 144; relief prepara-
tions ordered, 144; dupUcity
charged concerning, 145; reen-
forcement expected by South-
erners, 458.
Swett, Leonard, on Lincoln's early
INDEX
529
reading, 439; on Lincoln's
youthful drudgery, 440.
Syinpson, Alexander, on Lincoln's
juvenile fight, 2.
Tamerlane, McClellan contrasted
with, 342.
Taney, Roger B., his death, 285;
his successor discussed, 469.
Taylor, Dick, exposed on the
stump by Lincoln, 54—56.
Taylor, James, hires Lincoln to
help at ferry, 17.
Taylor, Joseph H., reported by
Burnside for discipline, 474.
Taylor, Thomas T., demands ex-
planation of Fremont's procla-
mation, 301, 479.
Taylor, Zachary, in Black Hawk
War, 445; guided by Seward,
132, 136.
Tennessee, expulsion of Confeder-
ates from, 175, 176; in Moun-
tain Department, 316.
Texas, inspection and survey of,
329.
Thomas, George H., appointed
commander of Army of Ohio,
266; declines appointment,
266, 267; advancement advo-
cated by Stanton, 267; praised
by Stanton in letter to C. A.
Dana, 474; would have won
Peninsular Campaign, 391.
Thomas, Jesse B., attacks " Long
Nine," 61, 62; in "great de-
bate" of 1840, 80, 81.
Thomas, Lorenzo, reports inade-
quate protection for Washing-
ton, 273, 475; advises against
sending Franklin to Peninsula,
275; investigates Western De-
partment, 310, 311; letter to
Fremont advising economy,
481.
Thompson, Dow, wrestles with
Lincoln, 39, 40.
Thompson, Joseph P., tells about
Stanton's control over Lincoln,
471.
Thompson, M. Jeff, issues retalia-
tory proclamation, 300.
Todd, Mary, makes home with
Mrs. Edwards, 83; lampoons
Shields, 67, 68; aU " Lost
Townships" letters ascribed
to her, 74, 75; courtship with
Lincoln, 68, 83, 84 ; marries
Lincoln, 67, 68, 77, 84, 449. See
also Lincoln, Mrs. Abraham.
Toombs, Robert, Seward's pur-
pose to crush, 141.
Totten, Joseph G., advises evacu-
ation of Sumter, 139.
Townsend, Edward D., suggests
plan for transferring Hassler,
245.
Trenton, N. J., McClellan sent to,
422, 496.
Trmnbull, Ljmian, marries Julia
M. Jayne, 67, 68; elected to
U. S. Senate, 90, 450; opposes
Kansas-Nebraska legislation,
90, 91, 98; aids Lincoln in 1858,
110; on committee that asks
Lincoln to reconstruct cabinet,
189; influences Winfield Scott's
retirement, 341.
Turenne, Vicomte de, McClellan
compared to, 342; holds troops
by victories, 411.
Turgot, Anne R. J., Chase likened
to, 168.
Tumham, David, on Lincoln's
early scholarship, 4, 439.
Usher, John P., presents young
man for paymaster appoint-
ment, 473.
Van Buren, Martin, his independ-
ent treasury project, 81 ; votes
for negro suffrage, 82; method
of influencing Jackson, 459,
460.
Vandalia, 111., seat of govern-
ment to be removed from, 58;
Lincoln and Douglas meet at,
79.
Viele, Egbert L., on Lincoln's
strength, 27, 443; on Seward's
attempts to monopolize Lin-
cohi, 460, 461.
Villard, Henry, favors Douglas's
return to Senate, 450.
Vincent, Thomas M., asks Lin-
coln to revoke mistaken order,
470.
530
INDEX
Virginia, in Mountain Depart-
ment, 316; in Department of
Ohio, 484; in Division of Poto-
mac, 484.
Wade, Benjamin F., anti-sla very-
champion, 159; receives votes
for presidential nomination in
1860, 464; member of Commit-
tee on Conduct of War, 486;
influences Winfield Scott's re-
tirement, 341 ; loses confidence
in McClellan, 362; on commit-
tee that asks Lincohi to recon-
struct cabinet, 189.
Wadsworth, James S., appointed
Military Governor of District of
Columbia, 488; reports inade-
quate protection for Washing-
ton, 273.
Walker, L. Pope, letter from L.
Q. Washington on Lincoln's
attitude, 458.
Wallace, William, induces Doug-
las to abandon wooing of Mary
Todd, 84.
Walpole, Horace, answered by
Pitt, 446.
Ward, Artemus, read by Lincoln
to cabinet, 185, 186.
" Warrington." See Robinson,
WiUiam S.
Washbume, Elihu B., receives
letter from Lincoln on Trum-
bull's election, 450; condemns
Fremont, 480, 481; condemns
McKinstry, 481.
Washington, D. C, besieged by
Confederates, 342-345, 485;
defence of, 270-274, 363, 371,
373-376, 394, 403, 408, 409,
490; Early's raid, 282; Mc-
Dowell recalled to defend, 384,
387, 390; endangered after
Second BuU Run, 411 ; in Divi-
sion of Potomac, 484.
Washington, George, Weems's
portrayal of, 7, 440, 441; Lin-
coln's hero, 7; his uncommon
size and vigor, 32, 33; rage
over St. Clair's disaster, 370;
LvDColn ranked with, 425; a
surveyor, 445; influenced by
Heunilton, 461; letter from
Hamilton on cabinet quarrel,
465; troubled by partisan
quarrels, 468. '
Washington, L. Q., on Lincoln's
attitude toward South, 458.
Weber, John B., incites attack
on Baker, 56.
Webster, Daniel, on availabiUty
in candidates, 125; appointed
Secretary of State, 455; re-
vises Harrison's inaugural ad-
dress, 135, 456, 457; Seward
contrasted with, 123.
Weed, Thurlow, political asso-
ciate of Seward, 123, 124; vis-
its Lincoln at Springfield, 127;
discusses cabinet appointments
with Lincohi, 128; intrigues de-
feated, 456; Chase complains
to him of Seward, 187, 188;
letter from David Da\'is on
Chase's candidacy, 467.
Weitzel, Godfrey, receives orders
about Virginia legislature, 247,
248.
Welles, Gideon, on conunittee
that notifies Lincoln of first
nomination, 29; listed for cabi-
net ofiice, 128; appointment
opposed by Seward, 129; ap-
pointed to cabinet, 131; on
Seward's "meddlesome intru-
sions," 137, 138; advises against
provisioning Sumter, 143; re-
verses opinion about Sumter,
144; directed to relieve Sum-
ter, 144, 459; declines to sign
protest against McClellan, 278,
279; describes McCleUan's res-
toration, 280, 281 ; answers
C. F. Adams's address, 149,
150.
Wellington, Duke of, righted by
publication of his despatches,
382; on officer's refusal to serve
under one of lower rank, 482.
West Indies, 329.
Wheeler, William A., secures Sa-
bin's appointment, 262-264;
wins Stanton's respect, 266;
letter to Lamon on Sabin ap-
pointment, 473, 474.
Whig Party, organizes, 121; sup-
ported by Lincoln, 47; Lincohi
INDEX
S3^
on electoral ticket, 54; led by
Lincoln in Illinois Assembly,
59, 62, 63; not prepared for
anti-slavery principles, 158;
Lincoln " something of a Sew-
ard Whig," 127; merged in
Republican Party, 121, 454;
former Whigs in Lincoln's cabi-
net, 128.
Whiteside, John D., represents
Shields in quarrel with Lincoln,
68-71; prevents duel between
Shields and Butler, 72; sends
quasi-chaUenge to Merryman,
72, 73.
Whitney, Henry C, on Lincoln's
unjust treatment bv Illinois
Central Railroad, 112, 113;
gives Green's version of the
lifting wager, 441.
Whittier, John G., on Fremont's
proclamation, 314; his hymn
sung by the Hutcliinsons, 352,
353.
Wigfall, Louis T., at consultation
of Southerners, 458.
Wilderness, Battle of, 176.
WiUiamsbnrg, Battle of, 391.
Williamson, James A., promoted
despite Stanton's objections,
242-244.
Wihnot Proviso, 105.
Wilson, Frederick A., named for
collectorship at Puget Sound,
198.-
Wilson, Henry, counsels Repub-
hcans to support Douglas,
93, 450, 451 ; attitude in 1858
towards Lincoln, 94; opposes
Douglas in Senate, 98; confers
secretly with Stanton, 223.
Wilson, Henry C, appointed col-
lector at Puget Sound, 198-
200.
Wilson, James F., secures justice
for private soldier, 257-260;
wins Stanton's respect, 266.
Wilson, Robert L., one of the
" Long Nine," 447.
Wilson's Creek, Battle of, 304-
306.
Wise, Henry A., favors Douglas's
return to Senate, 451.
Wolcott, Oliver, declines to sup-
port remonstrance against
Knox, 476.
Wood, William, on Lincoln's
strength, 10, 441.
Wool, John E., commands For-
tress Monroe, 378; on Confed-
erate willingness to exchange
Capitals, 490.
Yorktown, Siege of, 274-276,
377-380, 476.
"Yoimg Napoleon," The, 328.
See also McClellan, George B.
Zagon3d, Charles, defends Fre-
mont, 317.
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